Renate's Response to Armantrout

WHOA!

When we first read Armantrout at the beginning of the semester (and even when we started to delve into her book later on) I admit, I was very unsure of my ability to close-read her poems. In fact, her kind of poetry is one of the reasons that poetry, in general, scares me. At a glance, it's just a string of words that make no sense. And why would I bother to read something like that?

I recall the list we made, on our first discussion day, of things that Armantrout's poems DON'T do. There's no narrative, no clear feelings, emotions, or memories, no voice or persona, no center. We also said things like there were no recurring images or evident themes, no "real" or "hidden" meanings. After reading and discussing the whole book, I don't think that's entirely true. I think there are recurring "themes," if you will.

Pop culture, for instance. I noticed, more specifically, television shows and movies. For example, on page 35:

"Melinda is comforted by Jed
when she twists her ankle trying
to evade an angry ghost.

Unanswered questions
change things
between Booth and Bone."

These are two television shows that I know--the first being "Ghost Whisperer" and the second being "Bones." Both are shows centered around death in some way.
Another pop culture reference that really stood out to me was on page 88:

"The playboy scion of a weapons company repents. His
company, he sees now, is corrupt, his weapons being
sold (behind his back) to strong men. Alone, he builds a
super weapon in the shape of a man. Now, more power-
ful and more innocent than ever before, he attacks."

Who can tell me they did not think of Iron Man when they read this???
And, actually, the last sentence of that paragraph really stood out to me. I feel like Armantrout was making a statement, here. Is this playboy really more innocent with this new, super weapon? He does end up killing the bad guys, as opposed to other superheroes who make it a point not to kill anyone.

Another common thread mentioned during our discussions was cancer. It was mentioned during our discussion of "Translation"; something about the dreamlike feeling of the mockingbird in the second stanza and the "Check to see" calling of the birds gave the slight impression of an ICU.
The cancer theme came up more prominently in the poem, "Integer" : "A healthy cell/ exhibits contact inhibition" (93). That means the when cells touch each other, they stop growing. Those that keep growing tend to end up as tumors.

With the subject of cancer popping up everywhere and me totally missing it, I looked up Armantrout's relation to cancer. It turns out she did have cancer: adrenal cortical cancer. It was though that she wouldn't live much longer, but somehow, she pulled through and shows no signs of recurring. I wonder if the poems with snippets of cancer in them were written during her experience or after the fact.

So, yes, there were a lot of things that didn't make sense in Versed. But there were also some that kind of did. I ended up enjoying this book. I think that happens a lot when you actually understand what you read.

Apparently, she likes to listen to Lady Gaga: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/18/pulitzer-in-hand-a-poet-revels-in-words-and-life/