Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Poem of the Day: "High School as a Dead Girl" by Cate Marvin

"High School as a Dead Girl" by Cate Marvin is the Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day for April 2, 2014.   A link to the poem may be found here:  http://www.theawl.com/2013/03/two-poems-by-cate-marvin.

Cate Marvin (b. 1969) (pictured) is a Professor of English the College of Staten Island.  Her poetry has been published in several prestigious journals, and her two published poetry collections have won awards.  Her third poetry collection is forthcoming in 2015.  Reference to this and additional biographical information about this up-and-coming poet may be found here:  http://www.catemarvin.com/biography/.


Ms. Marvin has managed to compress the high school experience into a single poem of only sixteen lines.  It's all there:  adolescent body changes, sexual tension, experiments with drugs (in the case of this poem, alcohol), the need to fit in, suicide, anti-intellectualism, the fight for some who strive to go on to college despite the anti-intellectualism, the desire to be physically attractive, and the need to be loved.  Underneath the matter-of-fact tone the emotions are raw and real.

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