In The Land Down Under Poem By Megane Rosser

Meghan O'Rourke, J. Allyn Rosser, and Eleanor Wilner all bring up a good point. The term women's poetry can be demeaning. I suppose if all of my work that I had completed, regarding writing, in my life was to be tossed into one genre because of what my body is, I would be rather displeased. What I have “In the land down under” has no pertinence into how I write and what I write. I am a man that enjoys beauty, love, flowers, art, war, and blood and guts. Does that make any of my writing half female? I should hope not! Does the fact that I write about beauty make me gay? No, it just means that I appreciate things that most men may over look. J. Allyn Rosser put her words in the most plain and clear way possible. She used an almost sarcastic

This poem reached out to me and grasp me. Perhaps it is due to my schedule; I work the night shift and often feel as if the “the black man” is reaching his hand out to me, to whisk me off into the night. The “black man” of course, is the darkness that accompanies the night. So often I feel the rush, it is hard to describe, but I can liken it to the effect of a whirlpool. Gradually the night sucks you in and you begin to feel a sense of security. Sanchez uses words that are inviting to the sensations. She describes being wrapped in a blanket as being wrapped in lint. Lint is so much more softer, and is pleasing to the senses. Another way I felt invited into the world of the poem was the way the poet spoke; it almost sounded like a soliloquy. She speaks to herself. She asks where she is going then answers that she is traveling; always traveling. It was as if we had been invited into her mind. A mind that seemed anxious, yet

At first I thought this would be a traditional story; I was dead wrong. The story surrounds the youth named Connie who is struggling to break free of her mother's ruling bonds. Everything changes when she meets Arnold Friend. What would seem to be a one night, chance meeting turns into a very creepy second encounter. What makes it creepy is that he seemingly knows everything about her, and he is not afraid to express that. He challenges her to call the police. His brashness is disheartening. He keeps calling her baby, which made me creeped out. Oates brings the creep factor out in the mannerisms of Arnold Friend. I feel like he had a hawaiian shirt on, with sunglasses, and his hair in a pompadour; the classic sleazeball . The entire time Connie is around him, you know that it is going to go south. He represented, in my mind, the other side of the fence. People always say the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Arnold Friend represented the world outside of Connie's mother's control. He could not be stopped or reckoned with. He was a free spirit, not afraid to do any wrong. I could not tell if this was all just a dream, a bad dream that she was having. I hope she fell asleep while being outside in the sun. I hope she was dreaming about a guy she had seen and that it was only a nightmare. However, the story makes you wonder. It makes you