Louis Jenkins Visit Preparation

Louis Jenkins's poems look like prose within a skinny book. He doesn't capitalize the beginning of each line, and his lines all have pretty much the same length. Jenkins's poems don't reference very many trees and birds and nature-y whatevers, but instead staples of modernity: shoes, football, CDs, drain pipes, and cars. These "normal' objects of everyday life allow Jenkins to reach closer to the average person. 

I especially liked the contrast between "The State of the Economy," whose straightforward language illustrate the frugality of people during a poor economy, and "Gravity," which broadens out from a simple drain pipe to a "what is life" concept. Both poems approach serious situations or ideas with common items and address their audiences directly. 

In "The State of the Economy," Jenkins focuses on searching for and conserving money in a list-like fashion without many poetic devices. The poem's narrator is less of someone concerned about existential truths and more of someone trying to make ends meet in ordinary ways. "I'm expecting a check sometime next week, which, if we are careful, will get us through to payday," Jenkins writes. The poem refuses to say phrases such as "the economy suffers" or "we struggle to buy food" but instead shows it through directions to the audience. The shortness and simplicity of the poem could fit into a casual email between one spouse and another. The last line, "On second thought, forget the newspaper" really highlights the desperation of the narrator to save money, especially since newspapers cost so little. 

"Gravity" takes a more investigative standpoint than "The State of Economy" and involves more abstract ideas and devices. The first sentence outlines a very concrete map of water from a sink, while the second sentence uses two different definitions of gravity and treats them as the same. Then, the poem transitions to a wider view of life as a detached whole and uses the metaphor of a famous Shakespearean line: "The world is a stage. But don't try to move anything. You might hurt yourself, besides that's a job for the stagehands and union rules are strict," Jenkins writes. 

I wonder, were these two very different poems from different "periods" in Jenkins's career? Or does he consistently write with a variety of styles?