i have also read the work of 666_blessings a number of times now. It was refreshing to read another collection of poetry within this forum to compare the way different students have approached the form.
i was very much taken aback by the contrast of his work to the other works of poetry i have read (though i have not experienced many from 2005 as of yet). There was a very eclectic sort of mix of styles and structures, and the division of the collection and the subject matter was very interesting. The first poem of the collection was perhaps my favourite, and, as described in the reflection statement, the line wondering where the mother would obtain mockingbirds or diamond rings was very well done.
as the work continued, i felt the work could have benefitted from a little bit of a different voice. I felt a similar tone as the works progressed that made the work become a little bit sterile and descriptive in the third person. When the reflection statement specified that the works were written with a main sort of emotional influence, i thought it might have struggled a little bit to come out of the works.
i thought the sort of evolutionary concept of the 'ages' was very good. there was a very definitive progression in the temporal ages of the subjects. it is a little bit unfortunate that it seemed there wasnt a great deal of room to move in the division of the collection. i felt that perhaps 'the age of turmoil' or 'the age of estrangement' had amazing possibilities to be able to explore different aspects of these ages, like perhaps including social undertones or moral imperatives. the poem 'an eight year old watches' maybe moved in this direction a little bit, though it might have only slightly skimmed over the social issues it addresses. i noticed that the poems 'the age of turmoil' (i think) were also sort of confined to relationships perhaps on a more intimate and personal sort of level. I'm sure it would have been a burden to research, and restricted by the word limit, but there are amazing possibilities that could perhaps be explored, sort of like the reactions of adolescents to things such as change, or adversity or more universal focuses, while still maintaining the main objective of focusing upon human interaction.
I also noticed that the poems were not divided onto seperate pages. while there is no real regulation that specifies that each should begin on a new page, it was interesting, and i dont think it appeared in the reflection statement.
i was also concerned with several ideas in the reflection statement. occasionally i was concerned that some elements were generalised, such as the evolution being "often overlooked or misunderstood by a society which is becoming physically closer but more emotionally isolated". and also when referring to adolescence "they possess the maturity to reflect upon what is presented while also lacking the maturity to think about these things without prompting" it seemed as though it was a little bit of a condescending statement. though i did feel the justification in choosing free verse poetry and integrating the strengths of traditional poetry was a very good idea and very well expressed.
i'm sorry if i'm being terribly conservative here, but also maybe specifying that poetry came from 'random words pulled from the dictionary' could be of concern if markers are looking for a very fastidious sort of compositional process.
considering these though, it was a very very interesting work to read and experience, thankyou very very much for sharing it with us.