Diane Wakoski

Diane Wakoski is often associated with the Deep Image movement yet her creative career goes far beyond the boundaries of this particular school of poetry. As Paul Hoover points out, the label is connected mostly to her early years as a poet in which she created stunning surrealist pieces like “Blue Monday” (which was the inspiration for my own response). But her style has changed somewhat since then, moving from dreamlike abstraction to a more narrative style. Her very personal and direct pieces might remind of the Beats or Confessionals and often looks at the unpleasant and painful parts of people’s lives. The Poetry Foundation quotes Peter Schjeldahl saying about Wakoski’s poems in the New York Times Book Review:

"[They] are professionally supple and clear . . . but their pervasive unpleasantness makes her popularity rather surprising. One can only conclude that a number of people are angry enough at life to enjoy the sentimental and desolating resentment with which she writes about it." 

I am definitely one of those people who share her rage. – Although not in this poem, for once I actually wrote a happy one.

Links:

http://dwakoski.com/

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/diane-wakoski

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Wakoski

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In Mint Condition

Ocean green ocean of soft

cushion moss morning leaf

a dream’s citrusy taste still tingling

lingering tender rest breast fingertip

traces on apple sheets

He holds me

in mint condition

aquamarine at the bottom of my spine

through every fibre I shimmer emerald

taking luscious sips of flavoursome chartreuse

breathing pine

with callow sun light caught in the eastern window

my leaves turn

my roots stretch eager and deep

I am sheltered delicate flesh in avocado sheathing

He my forester

his rake untangling my twisted blades

caressing my shoulders

pulling patiently my miserable weeds

in my meadows he opens the sky

on a morning of malachite

my jade in the palm shivering

in mint condition

only in his light