Journal Four from Dathan

Part One:
One of the more important things that I took from this book is about revision. Mary Oliver say in the book that she has at times revised a poem forty to fifty times before should would call it good enough, not quite done, just good enough, content with it. That seems to be one of the bigger issues with me, I lay down the ground work but I don't often go back to polish it up. Another thing that she talks about in this chapter was about making the poem more universal, don't just let it be for you, think about your audience. Sometimes when I do go back to revise something I think that my of the information in the work, whatever it may be, is commonly known and so I shouldn't bother talking about it.

Something else that is equally as important as the above is actually reading other poetic works. The more information our society has at its disposal, the less interested we become in learning things. I don't often read poems, but I guess that is something that has to change. Looking at the works of the past, seeing how they did what they did, will help us show what is possible and inspire us to try to think of something fresh.

Part Two:
The world is a big place with lots and lots of people, not everyone is going to agree on everything. When I was reading the biography, all of the quotes from critics that were mentioned seemed to either fully support or oppose her. I guess the authors of the bio didn't want much middle ground on that. On the point of her speaking about herself, her experiences those in favor of her work said that; "listening to Olds, we hear a proud, urgent, human voice."Those who opposed her seemed to think that she was too selfish in her writing. I can't really make of full opinion of her work because I have only read the poems that are in this packet, but if every one of her poems had something to do with unborn children or parents who gave them up, then I could start to see how the people who are against her feel, a little worn down.

I will be honest, her poem "Sex Without Love" got to me, I had to put a second hamster on the wheel. I mean from the title you can understand what it is about. What I gleamed from it was that; the people "who make love without love" are in a sense stronger, or need to be to survive on there own, compared to someone who is in love. She says that they, the loveless, are runners in a marathon, and like runners in a marathon, you don't worry about the guy ahead or behind of you, you just worry about yourself, being independent. I could be wrong about what I saw in this poem, but if i'm not then, well, i'm a slightly crossed, but I can still see where she might be looking from.