Private Trauma, Public Disaster

The switch from reading Nick Flynn's Some Ether to Robert Greenfield's A Carnage in the Lovetrees was an uncomfortable, but not unpleasant one. When I first began reading, I was looking for certain characteristic styles that Flynn used in his poetry, but was absent from Greenfield's. Unlike Flynn, Greenfield doesn't always employ confessionalism in order to comment on sufferings. For example, "Vantage" (pg 5) described a flood of some kind:
"The elementary city browned into rivers, streams ran down the
avenues, topping the asphalt up to the curbs".
Greenfield uses images of public disaster in various poems in order to evoke a certain reaction out of his readers. "Schema" (pg 3) uses both personal trauma and public disaster. It starts with a story about a family, which seems to end with a child's suicide ("Under cover, you are dead behind the couch when they knock.") The final few lines, however, reminded me a lot of Hurrican Katrina:
"and in the aftermath of advertising, children wander the highway in
search of litter.
The citizens are trembling among the trembling."
I think that Greenfield may have intended to show how private sufferings can be just as devastating to the person afflicted as a bigger-picture disaster. I get the sense that Greenfield feels his own pain through others and he uses their points of view in many of his poems. There are some examples of confessionalist poems, using "I" like in "Triadic" (pg 16) where he uses the first-person to describe a father's drug addiction. I think the blending of confessionalist technique, personal stories of people that are not Greenfield, and images of large-scale disaster serves the purpose of a more universally relatable basis for the emotion Greenfield intends for. As we discussed in class and on various blog posts, emotions are based on personal experiences and Greenfield provides various references for us to relate to while reading his poetry.

One thing I loved about Greenfield's poetry was the nature imagery (trees were mentioned on the Headquaters page). He finds the power in juxtaposition, as described about with private versus public matter, but also in the opposition of urban and natural settings. There is endless references to both cars/freeways and trees. In "Lives of the Hatch" (pg 45), I love how Greenfield describes the view of the stary night sky through tree leaves. It is so peaceful and hopeful as "the boy" climbs those trees (I assume to get to the window of his love). But then, it switches from serenity to desecration:
"In the valley of the colonial poxhill of the indigenous is converted into
commerce; my flawed imagination will not be sustained."
Greenfield really finds a peace in nature, and he seems to criticize industry and urbanization.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Greenfield's A Carnage in the Lovetrees because I found if more relatable, I wasn't confused by it in the way I was with Flynn and his fragmentation, and I found the various juxtapositions in his poetry refreshing and powerful. I felt it was more important to Greenfield that his audience understood his poetry, and for some reason I didn't feel as hopeless as I did while reading Nick Flynn. I also had a lot more to think about with Greenfield and felt more challanged, which resulted in a better connection to his words. To sum it up: a job well done, Richard!

PS: Lyceum as a poem title?!?! Did anyone else know this was a real word?