Week 2, Sign Inventory

"Providence" by Yusef Komunyakaa
(The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, pages 534-536)

Komunyakaa discusses the "power of words" in an essay discussing Jazz Poetry on poets. org. Of all the poems I read and listened to, "Providence" seemed to tap into that power in a most interesting way.

1. Simple words paired together to create new, specific nouns. Examples: love apples, perfect hunger, moon-pulled fish, dung-scented ark, black hush, night weather, 1/2 stunned yes, fat juice, naked wing. 

2. Each of the new nouns are closely followed by regular, almost cliche pairings. Examples: seven roads, red bird, wet leaves, dull day, dark lipstick, western horizon, hanging fruit.

3. The expected and unexpected are at odds in this poem. The expected pairings of words closely followed by the unexpected pairings.

4. Use of ampersands instead of writing the word "and". This symbols causes you to read it differently than if it were a word. The connection does not seem as clear as when you have a word. The symbol almost stops the connection and gets in the reader's way.

5. 7 lines per stanza, 9 stanzas with 7-10 syllables in each line. Perhaps this has something to do with the rhythm and meter of jazz poetry.

6. Only three stanzas start with pronouns. The first and third stanzas begin with "I" and the sixth stanza begins with "We". This is not the only time pronouns are used, but it is the only time they are used a the beginning of a stanza.

7. Most of the verbs used are in the past tense. However, the 1st line of most stanzas contain a gerund. No pattern is immediately apparent, but they seem to be mixed evenly through the poem. 

8. Most of the words are Latinate and appeal mostly to abstracts. Examples: requited, memory, glimpse, nestled.

9. .Aletheia. Is the only thing italicized in this poem. Aletheia: the state of not being hidden-truth.

10. The title-Providence (god centered care or direction for humans) becomes an interesting name for this poem in light of all of the personal pronouns and past and active verbs. The title seems to suggest a disconnect between the speaker, the title, and some higher power.