Structure & Surprise

The following poems, written by students in an advanced poetry workshop at Illinois Wesleyan University, were inspired by Courtney Queeney’s “Back to the Body” (from Filibuster to Delay a Kiss (NY: Random House, 2007): 77), a poem that employs the dialectical back-and-forth between “I” and “you,” and culminates in, if not precisely a synthesis, a surprise.

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“Excuses,” by Kristin Fields

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Hero Worship

If I am a static radio, then you are the slap

of stiletto heals on a hardwood floor.  If

I am a generic clone, you are a cosmos spinning

creation.  If I am the whispering voice that prevents your

slumber, then you are my enemy territory.

If I am searching the screen for answers, then you are

the crystal ball I choose to ignore.  If I am the ball of grease

you choked on, you are my heart attack and stroke.  If I am

insecure in my self-image, then you are a child lost

among the clothes racks at Macy’s.

If I am everything you wish to be, then you

are the heat of locker room steam.

How did I fail to save you?

—Theresa Peters

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More to come…