glenn beck blogger: Poetry Review: I am like October when I am dead

Poetry confuses me. It is one of those art forms where the purpose is often obscured. Usually the power resides with the reader than the writer. I have a few poet friends and I’ve mentioned how anxious I feel going through it. How should I react to this? Is it even good that I can relate to it? Am I supposed to understand what’s going on? Is this even a place for a poetry review, since most of my writing has to do with music?

I decided to try and push aside my natural prejudices towards this art form as I dove into Steve Roggenbuck’s chapbook “i am like october when i am dead”. Apparently this poet had randomly been following me on twitter, with rather cryptic, bizarre tweets, so I decided to return the favor by reading his more full length work.

His poetry reads like twitter poetry, since most of it is very brief. Most (but not all) of these poems are within the 140 character limit required. I liked some of these poems more than others, since I felt the minimal style worked well for him. Below is each poem, followed by my reaction. Note everything is lower case in his writing. And if you’re familiar with the likes of Tao Lin and his ilk, then this may be somewhat familiar to you, tone-wise.

i dont care about reading a poem

who do you think i am, robert frost?

i have never been in the woods and i hate walking

-Reaction: I thought this ended up being a tad bit too cute. Steve acknowledges the reader’s hesitancy in wanting to read poetry, but it came off as a bit too silly for me. Actually it took me another go before I decided to read the other ones.

god help me im throwing my neighbor off a building

-Reaction: Liked this one more than the previous one, but it still made me anxious about what awaited me.

i drink ten gallons of rice milk and pull the headlights out of my car hood

now they are way gone

-Reaction: This one mixes what I think is his sense of humor with strange detail. Using “way gone” instead of “gone” gives it a funnier vibe. I started to become more interested in it, though I acknowledge beginning anything is always tricky.

there is a show on the history channel about the mayan doomsday prophecy

jupiter is in the south of the sky

i love you in the south like the hurricanes of Jupiter

-Reaction: As a person who takes great interest in doomsday, I liked the meshing with it and love. There’s actually been writing about the destructive powers of love, so I feel the poem works on that level.

you are gone

for lunch i had peanuts

-Reaction: I like his shorter stuff. This seems to flow nicely from the previous passage, giving it a sense of continuity. Or I might just be reading into it too much.

i have two sunflowers wilting on my bookshelf

thats it

thats all

the poem is done, get out

-Reaction: Again, the referencing of itself bothers me a bit. I’m not sure if I’m the kind of audience he’s trying to appeal to though. Had he kept just the first sentence or simply removed the last, I would’ve liked it more. It is kind of strange for me to ask for edits in such a short thing. Oh well.

climbing onto this church

thank god

carrying a giant rake with me to scare walking individuals

-Reaction: This is funny. I enjoyed the image of carrying a giant rake.

last february i drove home from the library next to finch fieldhouse, sigur rós was on the cd player in the car with a tape adapter

i saw an elephant walking out of a circus truck into the parking lot of finch fieldhouse

-Reaction: Apparently the Sigur Ros reference was to improve the emotional content of the poem, since he felt for the poor Elephant. But my music snob tendencies went into overdrive once he said that the CD he was listening to was their “()” album, which I disliked. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

to my nephew on his birthday

i will choke your dad

i dont care

im not afraid

-Reaction: For whatever reason, this reminded me of the Doors song, perhaps it is that last line. Though he wrote “im” my mind reads it only as “I am”. It feels defiant.

10.

if you call me, i wont answer

i am sitting under the moon inside of a wheelbarrow

-Reaction: Enjoyed this quite a bit. Despite the short length, it conveyed to be a sense of childhood, where our emotions take hold of logic. That still happens as adults, but the wheelbarrow confirmed it could only apply to kids.

11.

i am like october when i am dead

there is my hand

i am like the killers of people

-Reaction: This one is bizarre. I’m not sure how I’m supposed to feel about it.

12.

i asked my dad if the corn harvest is over

it is way over, my dad said

-Reaction: I had no idea about this one. I didn’t grow up on a farm. Apparently Steve did according to his youtube video thing. His voice sounds American, he looks American, and he probably picked corn or milked cows or whatever in his rural town. I’m not as American as Steve Roggenbuck. Sorry.

13.

the hymnal at my grandmothers funeral says 'wives be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the lord'

five months ago i saw a video of a dog being thrown into a garbage compactor

-Reaction: The darkest one in here. I don’t know whether or not I like it. Since it leaves me so confused, I’ll say that’s probably a good thing.

14.

oh, you have a smock on

-Reaction: This reminds me of Ernest Hemingway’s six word story. Obviously, Steve’s take is lighter. The choice of the word “smock” gives it a playful connotation, like little children or painters. I enjoyed this one a lot.

15.

i rented a movie and recorded over it with two hours of myself

on the video i am shouting compliments at my family

i burn my car on purpose

it is january

i greet myself at the beginning of a great career

-Reaction: I liked bits of it. Steve mentioned in the commentary that the last line was re-phrasing Walt Whitman’s line of “I greet you at the beginning of a great career” (via his own commentary on his writing). This one feels chaotic, since he’s doing so many strange things.

Overall: I liked this. Had he removed some of the more coy parts of it, such as the poem referencing itself, I might have enjoyed it a bit more but this might be a personal preference of mine. Hopefully I get to see more material of his at a later point in time. Since he seems keen on having this available to the public, it won’t be long before we see more from him. I’m strongly considering actually ordering one of these chapbooks from him. The use of space in the chapbook and on the website allows you to place your own ideas into them, various doodles and notes. Please keep up the work, good sir!