Spider

I Bid You a Good Evening Spider

By Beth Kudla

The inspiration for my poem was the large, furry spider that was sitting next to my work bag at last Tuesday's Novi Zoning Board of Appeals Meeting when I was picking my things up to leave. I have a lot of spiders around my house because I live near the water. Rather than screaming and running away from it. I just picked up my bag and moved on wondering whether it had come from my house and gotten out of my bag or whether it was coming from the Civic Center and trying to hitch a ride with me. Oh, well because it lives in Novi now.

It was difficult trying to get the words in an order that made logical sense and were able to be followed while at the same time trying to get them to form the spider. I overcame the challenge by working with it for a few hours and adding a few words to lengthen the spider's leg.

A History of Drowning, 2

Carrie Olivia Adams

Why does it move so?
Why does it break or ask to be broken?

Her fingers stay tied. She is sitting on her hands to save them.

What if this too were to flower?
What color might it be in the dark?
Or with his back turned?

Carrie Olivia Adams



I liked this poem. I think it was about trouble with a relationship and consideration of having an affair. It is the second poem in a series of 5 poems by this author that all appear to be about problems in the speakers life. Possibly the same speaker with problems leading up to a possible suicide in the last poem.

I reviewed an interview with Carrie Olivia Adams and she is considering "the sense of lonliness that defines the human condition" in her writing. Though this perspective may seem very negative to many people, including my mother, who would like everyone to "look at the positive side" of everything. That is just not how life is. There is no positive side to many things that occur everyday. As unfortunate and negative as this may seem to some people, it is a reality for others.

In an interview, the author notes that even when her dream of publication came true, she realized that she would still have to keep her day job, wait for the bus and ride to work on a sticky seat. Though some people cannot appreciate noticing these types of things everyday, this perspective and the viewpoints in the poems, are something that I can relate to. It is not necessarily a bad thing to be able to focus on the negatives. Recognizing them is the only way that they can be either accepted for what they are or changed if they need to be.

The interview with Carrie Olivia Adams can be found at http://robmclennan.blogspot.com/2009/06/12-or-20-questions-with-carrie-olivia.html.