Murphy and Brainard

I enjoyed Sheila Murphy’s Letters to Unfinished J. Though many of these poems or letters didn't always add up to me, I did actually like reading these compared to some of our recent reading assignments. I find that sometimes she writes very fluently and then sometime adding abrupt lines. However, in many of her poems I felt that the lines she used could be a poem in themselves without knowledge of previous or future content. From time to time I did find myself looking up the definition to some of her vocabulary. But overall, it was easy to read. One of my favorite lines comes from letter 10, page 21."We held our eyelids open toward the coming of unnamed birds lingering with stranded melody."

Joe Brainard’s I Remember was a very entertaining read. He uses a really simple and repetitious way to structure his poem. I too found it a bit long at times. Some of the content shocked me or maybe just threw me off. Reading about an author's recollection of painting with his penis was..... unusual. Nevertheless, I thought it was a really creative and amusing way to compile random memories from childhood to adulthood, to smells and sounds, to feelings and emotions.