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Aimee
Nezhukumatathil
DEAR AMY NEZUKAMATOOTILL,
(a found poem, composed entirely of e-mails
from various high school students)
If I were to ask you a question about your book
and sum it up into one word it would be, Why?
I think I like Walt Whitman better than you. I just don’t
get literature, but for a fast hour and a half read, your book
takes the cake. I liked how you organized the
lines
in that one poem to represent a growing twisting Bonsai tree.
You are very young to be a poet. I also like how your poems take
up an entire page (it makes our reading assignment go faster).
In class we spend so much time dissecting your
poems
and then deeply analyzing them. I think I like Walt Whitman
better than you, but don’t take offense—you are very good too!
You are young. You are young and pure and really just want
to have a good time. Thank you we have taken a
debate
and you are a far better poet than Walt Whitman. And I loved
how your poems were easy to read and understand. Hello
my name is Alicia. We read your book and I just loved it.
We also read Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.
There
was no†competition there. I liked your book a whole lot better.
It was an easy read.†But poetry is not my favorite type
of literature. Sometimes I am offered drinks and guys
try to talk to me but I too just brush it off and
keep dancing.
Every once and a while there comes the creepy mean guys
that try to offer you things†and then they say something to you.
Are you going to get a rude reaction when you meet
that one guy in that one poem? I guess you never
know.
Lastly, I was wondering if you ever wrote a poem that really
didn’t have a deeper meaning but everyone still tried
to give it one anyways? Walt Whitman is better than you.
©
Aimee Nezhukumatathil 2007 |
