Poetry Postmortem (2)

Patient: eat it up by Blossom Hibbert

Still Life With Oranges by Paul Gauguin (1881)

Author’s Note: The Poetry Postmortem is where I take a poem I or someone else wrote and I discuss it in a non-workshop way. I am of the opinion that academics and critics have a tendency to suck the life out of poetry. They talk of “critical eyes”, but they are blind to the heart of a poem.

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Blossom Hibbert’s ‘eat it up’ was published by

Anthropocene

earlier this year. Anthropocene is a journal I have yet to crack (I have tried numerous times).

The overall impression I get from the poem is that the speaker simultaneously admires and fears whoever/whatever she is talking about. This is backed up by the first line: “My god, you really were going to eat me whole.”

The form is choppy, but we are aware that the lines blend into each other. “Teaspoon of earth stirred into morning,” conjures an image in my mind of a gigantic spoon stirring the sun. This is where I think people who don’t read poetry often get confused.

When you read a poem, you have to suspend disbelief. Picture yourself as though you are trying to entertain a child by creating characters out of thin air. The stories are based on reality, but they are presented in a fantastical manner.

The internal rhyme of, “…hold on tight, there is a dead stallion in the field and looks like i’ve been held up tonight by your incisors,” provides a lyricism to the poem. It amplifies the modernity.

The unusual imagery feels like being sucked into a television screen. I can see what the speaker sees. I smell what they smell. Everything is easily dreamed of, and that is a testament to Blossom’s intuition.

Leading us to the end of the poem, “…the poet is synergistic with defeat in retrospect,” is such a unique line. It reminds me of a planet that is obscured by sun, moon, and stars. There is a cosmic quality to it.

The final line, “…i never did enjoy peeling your oranges,” is like a punch. It ends on a powerful beat. It brings us back to the thing/person the poem is about. It is obvious that the speaker feels consumed by this entity, and this last line is their way of fighting back.

Overall, this is a relatively short poem, but it packs a lot of symbolism in a short space. The usage of the different senses serves to place the reader directly in the scene. We are a keen observer to the emotions of the poem. We are witness to the speaker taking the power back.

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Blossom Hibbert: @BlossomHibbert

Anthropocene: @anthro_poetry