Strategy Response, Week 4

One technique that Matejka uses in “Colloquialism” particularly is deflecting the possible emotional connection to subject matter by playing with the structure of the poem. In “Colloquialism” he sets up a “manual-style” form to detail racial and/or gang violence that helps keep a level of committed detachment. Numerating certain lines of the poem that features the process of a gang mutilation acts as one possible way to alleviate some of the psychology connections that poet, speaker, readers may have with such heavy, political subject matter. I would like to try to mimic such a filter, possibly through numeration or another technique, in which I could present subject matter that, may be of an emotional, political, or racial matter. How does one write about the death of a family member or loved one without sounding to attached, emotional, and even precious at times? How does one write about a memory of child abuse without becoming too “fantastic” with the violence or so vague that it remains unclear what the speaker is addressing in the poem? Form and structure may be just one place to start in keeping a distance from emotional subject matter. I plan to use this technique in the near future to tackle some delicate issues.