Musical thoughts--
Last night I had a dream that I was back in orchestra class, but it was for my MFA program. I went to find my violin and it was missing. Then I remembered that it was damaged by wetness in our garage. I kept opening flutes.
My violin was damaged in my garage and it saddens me a bit as my daughter has been talking about wanting to play the violin and I would have loved to pass down my violin to her.
Critical Paper/Hot Potato--
I've made all the corrections on my critical paper and have sent it back to the director of our MFA program and am hoping that the potato stays in his hands. The paper is called Including Laughter: Contemporary Women Poets Who Use Humor in their Work. It focuses on Dorothy Barresi, Nin Andrews, Denise Duhamel, Lucille Clifton, and a brief focus on Heather McHugh.
Basically, the paper discusses how women poets use humor different than male poets and the different techniques of humor such as exaggeration, repetition, satire.
Though it was an enjoyable topic for me and something I chose because when I couldn't decide on a topic, an editor told me-- "Why don't you write about what you do in your work--use humor to tackle difficult subjects." What was so interesting to me about this statement is that I hadn't really thought about that with my own work. But yes, that's exactly what I do, with life and in my poems.
Humor has always been a defensive mechanism for me. I always wonder if it was something learned or I was born with. I tend to think it was learned as my family was always quick to laugh at the grim, the serious, the things you "shouldn't" laugh at. Even when my nana, who turns 95 this Tuesday stumbles, we giggle--as does she mind you. We think we are compassionate people, but don't ever get hit in the face with a football in front of us as we're more likely to be overcome with laughter than to check if your nose is broken.
Using humor in a poem allows the threat to be taken away, it is an invitation, a reminder that if we can laugh at our fears, our demons, our anxieties, they cannot so easily destroy us.
