Sunday, 22 March 2015

Blert! What the heck did I just read?!



I recently read Blert by Jordan Scott. I have to say my first impression was one of confusion and a general feeling of "meh." I painfully flipped through each page, trying my best to keep an open mind and to try and understand what this poetry was working so hard to describe. I got lost in the overuse of random words and exaggerated sentences. It wasn't until we discussed the book in class that I truly developed an appreciation for this collection. I was never blessed with a speech impediment that helped produce such an impactful collection, so I feel lucky to be able to read, and now understand, what's been put in front of me. Upon a second reading, this time with an understanding that this book was intentionally made difficult to follow which mirrors the difficulty the author finds in speaking, I was much more attracted to the contents of the book. While doing a little more research into this text, I stumbled upon a review in Lemon Hound. Here's the link: http://lemonhound.blogspot.ca/2008/08/derek-beaulieu-on-blert.html
I think Derek Beaulieu does a great job exploring and explaining his feelings on the text, and I felt like I more or less agreed with him. I found a lot of truth in Derek's explanation of the collection as a whole: 

"blert moves from language’s shorelines to the pounding surf, from the languid sandbars to the towering cliff-edges – the unstable sides of falling rocks and jagged precipices."  


I thought this was a really interesting way of explaining the book, and I thought it was really, really well said.  


1 comment:

  1. I really enjoy the use of interesting word combinations and sounds, but like you, I was confused by what the poems were actually about. This is another circumstance where I feel it helps to know a thing or two about the author and where they stand. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and that Lemon Hound article. I agree, it helps explain a lot.

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