poetry paper

Every couple weeks I write a five page paper on about 20 lines of poetry for my poetry class. Analyzing these poems is a painstaking process, but I am grateful for being in the class. Once you learn how to anatomize each individual word of a poem, your whole perception of literature changes. Now when I read novels I pick them apart just as I would a poem and their meaning is elevated to a level I would have never previously understood.

This is the poem I'm writing about for tomorrow:

"Sugar Dada"

by J. Allyn Rosser

Go home. It's never what you think it is,
The kiss, the diamond, the slamdance pulse in the wrist.
Nothing is true, my dear, not even this

Rumor of passion you'll doubtless insist
On perceiving in my glance. Please just
Go. Home is never what you think it is.

Meaning lies in meaning's absence. The mist
Is always almost just about to lift.
Nothing is truer. Dear, not even this

Candle can explain its searing twist
Of flame mounted on cool amethyst.
Go on home—not where you think it is,

But where you would expect its comfort least,
In still-black stars our century will miss
Seeing. Nothingness is not as true as this

Faith we grind up with denial: grist
To the midnight mill; morning's catalyst.
Come, let's go home, wherever you think it is.
Nothing is true, my dear. Not even this.