Course:Nature Poem by Tommy Pico

CRWR 501P 003
Advanced Writing of Poetry
	Instructor:Dr. Bronwen Tate; Email: Bronwen.tate@ubc.ca; Office: Buchanan E #456;
Important Course Pages
	Inspirations & Influences;
Categories
	Sources of Inspiration and Influence Aardvark Book of Poems Book of Poems by a Living Poet Choufleur Conflicted, Ambivalent, or Antagonistic Feelings CRWR 501 People Encountered Before Twelve Essay Fiction Films Fox Gemini Music Orchid Otis Places Poem Composed Before 1945 Poetic Prose Sadcactussometimesblooms Song, Painting, Film, Etc. Souris Yarrow Yellow Silver

Nature Poem

Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem introduced me to working with juxtaposition, specifically juxtaposing events that are serious or unserious, and language that are formal or informal. In mixing of the two, it creates a habitat in the poem for writers to explore topics that are more difficult and to make them more approachable. By looking at topics such as racism or homophobia with shifts of colloquial text language, Pico creates both a distance and an intimacy between the text and the reader. The topics of the poems are demanding, but tone and language are accessible by the modern readers.

Nature Poem, pg. 2

Let’s say I’m at a pizza parlor

Let’s say I’m having a silce at the bar this man walks in to

pick up his to-go order

Let’s say his order isn’t ready yet and he’s chatty

Let’s say I’m in Portland bc ppl don’t tawlk to me in NCY

Let’s say he’s like, meatballs are for the baby, pizza’s for the

little man, Caesar salada’s for the wife and the beer he point

to the beer and then thumbs at himself, the beer’s for me.

He has one of those cracked skin summer smiles

He keeps talking like I want to hear him

Like he’s so comfortable

Like everybody owes him attention

I’m a weirdo NDN faggot

He puts his hands on the ribs of my chair asks do I want to

go into the bathroom with him

Let’s say it doesn’t turn me on at all

Let’s say I literally hate all men bc literally men are animals

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This is a kind of nature I would write a poem about.

What Pico achieves here is also an element of surprise. In including text abbreviations such as ppl, bc, I felt related because of my identity as a modern reader. Yet added with the sharp turns of the conversation, I was jumped at again. I’ve been thinking about my own writing, whether I’ve been doing these in my poems without noticing them. I write about racism during Covid-19 in my poems, and I think about ways to make them realistic but also not essayistic. And maybe Pico has brought an awareness to my writings, that this juxtaposition is something I can utilize to tone down the formality of the language, but still bring on the harshness and bluntness of the situation.

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