Perusing Through Post-Modern Poetry

On the advice of Aaron Belz (a professor and poet in California), I have been reading Graham Foust’s A Mouth in California. I must admit, it’s been slow going…

Foust relies heavily on taking the expected and turning it on its head – whether that is a common saying or a song lyric etc. He also plays quite a bit with what the “voice” of the poem is. This is shown through most of his titles - “Poem with Fear, As Half Awakened” gives the obvious rise of the question: “Wait…is the poet with fear or the poem?” And this is just the sort of question Foust wants you to ask. 

After reading many of his poems over and over again (some with more success than others) I finally came upon one that jumped out at me from the start (or at least on the second read).

POEM WITH TELEVISION

But first another picture of the world

                          <> 

I thought I saw you in

the mirror through the window.

You do

remember don't you.

Absence of evidence isn't an answer.

                          <>

I thought you saw me through

the window in the mirror.

You don't

remember do you.

Evidence of absence isn't an answer.

                          <>

What part of

"What part of no

don't you understand?"

don't you understand

on one more American-

money ugly morning,

busy-intersection

skittish in a bed?

                          <>

Greased, it would seem, what I call

what I used to call

belief slides through me.

Is it just me, or am I alone?

While reading this poem you can feel the infinite reflections of the television screen. It's like standing in a hall of mirrors, and forgetting which image is you and which the reflection. But at the end, just with the final line, all the mirrors are stripped away, all the noise of the television, and you stand there, naked, alone.

I'm not quite sure if this connection is a break through or a failing in the poet's form for just this poem, but I might just be beginning to enjoy Foust's style.