Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods

I would like to discuss a subset of poems in which Paula Bohince makes use of different perspectives in order to more deeply illustrate her father's murder. The four poems are The Apostles, The Gospel According to Lucas, The Gospel According to Paul, and The Gospel According to John.

In The Apostles, the narrator gives us a more general, less-biased perspective on the incident. The first stanza is an attention-grabber, starting with: “Begin with a paper bag / flush with crumpled hundreds.” By introducing money, it sets up the idea of greed and love of money (Bible reference), which will eventually lead to death of the narrator's father. The second stanza tells us of the “reborn” man (Bible reference) who relies on this money to survive, to pay his laborers. Next, in the third stanza, the narrator asks the audience to consider the point of view of the laborers, describing them with the line: “cheated, ruined, furious.” The narrator spends the rest of poem talking hypothetically about the murder: “if they surprised him ... if they wanted to see the money ... if they finished him.” She doesn't want to make any accusations; she feels pity for both sides. But we are able to see what happened.

In the three Gospel poems, we are able to watch the three men reflect on their sin. Between the three men, there are obvious feelings of regret and justification. Lucas, I think, feels both; in the third stanza of his poem, he uses the metaphor of the fish who fall for the the tricks of the workers, ending up pathetic and dead. The workers feel as if they are being tricked by the boss and have the same pathetic, lifeless feeling. Lucas feels cheated, and thus justified in doing the deed. However, he shows his regrets when he discusses his “intent to be a good man / filled with mercy.” Paul doesn't seem very regretful, but uses a different animal metaphor to justify his actions: “The ravenous mouthes of the beetles ... Theirs is an innocent hunger.” The workers are the beetles; their greed is justified. Within the three remaining lines, Paul uses the word “innocent” two more times, because he feels that he is. John is the most regretful, and rightfully so, seeing as he pulled the trigger. I didn't recognize this, though, until the last line. He sets it up by talking about feeling like God, seeing his creations, the results of his power. But the line: “belonging to His kingdom of violence.” made me think that it's a reference to God's sorrow, as he sees his creations committing horrible sins.

Just as Peter Oresick showed us in Warhol-o-rama, each new perspective is a different angle from which we can look at a topic; the more angles we have, the better we understand exactly what the author is putting forth.

Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods

In Paulo Bohince's Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods she uses poetry to put beautiful imagery to a rather depressing story of her life as a woman within an man's world. Many of her poems deal with loss. The gradual loss of her sick father in poems such as Longlegs, The Fatherless Room, and Cleaning My Father's House. I like the imagery in Longlegs where she says, "I look to its shadow on on the sheet, then to its body, a kernel, something to be crushed". I think that paints such an interesting picture as to how badly her Fathers state had deteriorated and also gives some insight into her emotional state, watching the most significant man in her life go from being strong and powerful to weak, helpless, and insignificant- "its", "something to be crushed". She also speaks of a loss of identity or self-worth, to the identities the men in her life created for her in poems such as Spirits at the Edge of Bayonet Woods and When I think of Love. I like the lines in the Spirit at the Edge of Bayonet Woods she writes, "Forgive us, Lord, we did not know them, humpbacked and ruined, crawling toward us wanting clean shirts, kisses, more children. Tell me, what was a woman's purpose in those woods?" And in When I think of Love when she says, "to this boy who left school at fourteen, who comes each summer wanting work, then stays, wanting my life, I believe." She also speaks of a loss of faith in the Gospel According to John. This poem really struck me, especially that last four stanzas I thought the imagery of the "wet rose" was beautiful and when she says, "tried to sit with that flower and feel as God must: the pleasure of His birds swollen with feathers, His birds bound to His sky, belonging to His kingdom of violence" the continuing theme of a loss of power or control over her life comes through so clear.

Gender Issues in Bayonet Woods

Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods is a depressing book with breathtaking imagery. The author, Paula Bohince, clearly has a complex relationship with her home town. While she displays a fascination with nature and animals, she is obviously discontent.The poem “Spirits at the Edge of Bayonet Woods” was the first poem that really defined her feelings towards her “homestead”.In regards to a woman who committed suicide, she writes that the women in Bayonet woods “understood when she wrote, I cannot go on here, in this place…”

This poem also asks a question: “what was a woman’s purpose in those woods?” I found this question to be a present force throughout the novel. The women seem to be stuck there, trapped by alcoholic fathers and abusive husbands. It is a place for men and hunting and the women seem to be victims. This can be viewed through Paula’s personal plight or the struggles of the women she writes about. Paula’s book is largely driven by the men tying her to the woods. First there is her father, later in the second chapter it is the memory of her father, and in the third chapter, her husband. There are also characters, such as Grace who kills herself, and Marie, whose father raped her, that she empathizes with.

Overall, I think that Paula Bohince’s experiences in Bayonet Woods are colored by her experiences specifically as a woman.

Incident at The Edge of Bayonet Woods

Paula Bohince’s “Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods” is stunning. Rarely does a book of poems possess both rich, achingly beautiful imagery and the suspense of a mystery novel. Each poem, like a patch on a quilt, reveals a piece of the story behind the narrator’s father’s murder, however, despite the gruesome subject of the book, Bohince’s work maintains a soft, solemn and unnervingly hushed atmosphere. The narrator also relies more on images to speak of her past and her feelings towards her father than narration, although the book is very much about her own emotional journey. In the first section, the reader is introduced to the setting, a quiet farm in Pennsylvania, through such images as “cloud-like sheep”, pastures, “rattling sycamores”, crabapples and fish. In the second and third sections, the narrator “begins with a paper bag” and introduces her father, the suspects for his murder and their motives and her childhood. However, Bohince seems not as concerned with ‘plot’ as she does with images, and memory. The environment around her is characterized, (for example she writes, “the stubble of weeds waiting for some emotion to occupy it”, and instead of expressing her literal feelings of frustration she “quarrels with rocks”). She also infuses Biblical imagery into her literary landscape, the allusions deepening and enriching her material. Much is left unsaid when it comes to the narrative itself, but the reader does not mind. The author is mimicking memory-what man or woman truly remembers or knows anything completely? I personally felt the need to go back and re-read this thin book…some of the images were too lovely to skim over just to finish the story. Bohince gives her book more momentum with the murder plot, however, the wrenchingly gorgeous imagery and honest emotion in each poem make “Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods” a work of art.
(Bohince masterfully makes use of adjectives, verbs and metaphors . Favorite examples include: Clothed by bristle, fingers like spigots, cursive of my father’s burning cigarette, fused eyelids).

Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods

Where Radio Fails - "In static, four kit foxes turn their alert faces/ toward the underbrush where they flicker,/ orange as candlelight." This poem caught my attention with these first three lines. When I saw the word "static" I immediately thought of falling rain being like static on a tv ,and also sounding the same. I also like the way this poem juxtaposes the idea of something as artificial as a radio with the pure, natural scene. I especially liked the lines "Weird cables of the sycamore rattle./ And if the interference of finches on those self-same branches" which really help the metaphor by comparing trees to cables and the finches' song to radio waves.

Toward Happiness - The language of this poem was interesting and I think it does a good job of capturing the feeling of nostalgia. The poem seems to recount a memory that isn't that pleasant, when her father "stormed off , jaw tight with disgust / at my incompetence" and "asking if the shutters were cut / and sanded, feeling my hands to see / if I was lying," yet concludes with "This is happiness."

I also liked her innovations with words like "fallingness" in "Silhouette" and "goddamming" in "The Gospel According to Lucas," they flow naturally with her poetry and they don't feel contrived.

Overall Paula Bohince's poetry was an interesting read with an enjoyable theme, although some parts were a bit opaque.

Inciddent at the Edge of Bayonet Woods

Paula Bohince's writing resembles those of the romantics. She uses nature and animals to make metaphors and creates vivid images of nature in peace and harmony. Another thing that jumped out at me, mostly in the first few poems, was the use of the word and the figure of the father. Is this a representation of her own father or is it simply a symbol for something of a higher power than her that she is to respect by default?

Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods-Set of Depressing Poetry

My overall opinion about this book is that Paula Bohince did an amazing job at putting together a detailed story through the use of poems. It reads as if it was a novel. Paula Bohince paints a picture for the reader of the farm which she describes and allows for the reader to experience all which she does in the poems. As a reader, I could see all the sights, smell all the smells and even feel the pain and suffering which is expressed in the poems. Suffering, depression, grieving and missing someone who has past are the majoring feelings found in mostly every poem. The death of the father is what the collections of poem revovles around. Religion is placed into the poems in numerous cases. A longing for answers from God is expressed in the poems. I did enjoy the poems however did not like the depressing mood of them. I would have like there to be some happiness or hope in the poem that continued more than just a line.

Paula Bohince writes each poem with great detail. I first became aware of this in the poem "Black Lamb" where she uses color to paint a picture in the readers mind. (Examples found in poem: pearl, dark silver, transparency, shiny, charred.) In the poem "Cleaning My Father's House", Paula triggers the readers sense of smell when describing how the father is remembered. (Example found in poem: "his scent of gasoline, and tobacco, pomade and Ivory soap). Paula's description of sound is seem in the poem "The Gospel According to Paul". (Examples in the poem: snakes hushes the grass, soothed by the hiss of oxygen, drip of morphine, rain hanging long of the sycamore then soaring to earth).

violent human nature

In Paula Bohince's "Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods," the protagonist recalls the old farm where she grew up after her father is murdered. Her old home is isolated in the wilderness, removed from society, and the return evokes old memories of nostaliga. Already, a sense of loneliness and bitter remorse for the past is established and sets the tone which will carry on for the rest of this poem. “I taste the odor of straw and millet released into fall, the cursive of my father’s burning cigarette, muslin curtain parting.” The murder of her father has left a profound effect on the narrator and she is changed forever because of it, seeing the world in a different, dimmer light. However, it is this lighting which illuminates her in the dark and will allow her to find meaning in her sorrow. There is plenty of sensory detail in Bohince's writing and I also noticed a huge emphasis on nature and violence, especially when the murder is described by John: "When the wet rose bloomed in the chest of the man I killed, I tried to concentrate on its image, tried to sit with that flower and feel as God must, the pleasure of his birds swollen with feathers, his birds bound to the sky, belonging to his kingdom of violence". It is awesome how Bohince is able to take elements from both these contrasting themes and combine them to create these raw images. After all, nature isn't always about sunshine and flowers. Nature can be cold, brutal and unforgiving, often reflecting our own cruel human nature.

Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods - First Post!

Final tally: flash fiction and poetry lost by a landslide to Las Vegas and Criss Angel's Cirque du Soleil show, so I'm typing my blog post now, before the break.

While some of the images this poet creates are beautiful and spot-on for the occassion of the particular poem, I found a lot of it to be very obscured and difficult to get at the real heart of. There were a few, though, that deserve an honorable mention here.

"First Day of the Hunt" - I have family in Pittsburgh, but I didn't realize that schools took a holiday for the first day of hunting season until I started attending college here. I always thought that was a unique little something to the city of Pittsburgh and since my cousin and her family are hunters, this poem seemed like the window into the event that I may not get to experience first hand (just paintball for me, thanks).
I loved how the poet was unafraid to admit that "we're so country / all our boys will skip away,", it hints at a certain pride in her upbringing. The "profound elemental list" of "rifle, rounds, knife, rope" is short and sweet. I wish my list of things before I set out for a day were so short. It's a small list and yet it feels like all a true hunter would really need, going back for generations.
"Visiting cousins: stroking curves / of antler, lengths of blood-stiffened fur". Maybe the "blood-stiffened fur" was supposed to be shocking, but I'm actually comforted by it as part of the whole image of those two lines. It creates a vivid image of a family gathering in which the personal spoils of the hunt are being shown off.
Personally, I think it could have done without the "woe is me" of waiting for my husband/brother/cousin to return. I was enjoying the description of the hunt, but my rising theory is that no piece of flash fiction or poetry will ever gain any recognition unless there is some sort of down note or deep-seated angst to remind us that life is never fun. Ever.

"When I Think of Love" and "The Gospel According to John" seemed to be a pair of poems meant to go hand in hand and so they win second place in my favorites.
Normally, I'm not a romantic, but there were a few descriptions in "When I Think of Love" that I couldn't ignore. "the rainbow, the memory / dwindling to one sexual minute caught in the sunlit / hollow of his throat, pool deepening". This seems to be one of those rare moments in art/writing/film where it is the girl gazing upon the male interest instead of the other way around. Maybe it's just because I'm a girl, but it's nice to hear a slightly sensualized description of a guy every once in a while. Let's face it, in a field historically dominated by men, most sensual descriptions are a "melon fest".
An even better stanza: "there in that remote acre of lust where I've hid him / all these years, so that he lives on, / forever nineteen, drinking the cold tea I bring / to this boy who left school at fourteen".
Forever nineTEEN, drinking the cold TEA I BRING, to this boy who left school at fourTEEN. The assonance captured me, not without intending to, but in a very subtle way. I didn't realize I was reading a few lines that sounded so nice until after I had already read them. I also like the idea of how she's kept that image/piece of him with her in her own secret place/way.
"The Gospel According to John", while nothing in particular leapt out at me, it seemed to be connected to the previous poem, the poet taking a stab at John's point of view, which is ultimately a little sadder and much less romantic. Ending with the line "belonging to His kingdom of violence." was a powerful move, though, making him sound almost like the cynical teenager who's questioning and critiquing the supreme being most of his religion hold to be so benign and merciful.

Thus ends my spiel on "Incident at the Edge of Bayonet Woods." Enjoy the break, everyone.

Vegas, here I come!!!

Hello, Monster

"Hello, Monster" was my favorite poem to read in Armor and Flesh. Perhaps it was the author's simple choice of words or just the concept itself that appealed to me. The poem starts off pretty generically with "the monster in my closet" idea but then it becomes heavyhearted and carries a sorrowful tone. Here, the narrator calls herself "the monster" because she seems to hurt everyone and everything that gets close to her. "I threaten me, everything I hold dear". She is her own worst enemy and it kills her to not be around the ones she cares about in fear of damaging them. At night she hides underneath her covers beacuse she is afraid of unleashing the beast within herself. "My sharp teeth glinting in the moonlight" reminded me of a werewolf or vampire, both which are associated with the night, envoking feelings of unrest and disparity . There is a sense of inner turmoil in the second to last stanza in which she cries, "Don't tell me it's ok. I know what I'm like". This is the author speaking in her own voice and not the monster's. This identity crisis or duality in character is made evident in the last stanza, "How much damage I could do if given room" which is the most aggressive by far. I would love to find out what has created this monster. -Pete Lee

Jay Maul

I'd like to consider a theme that I found to be common in several of the poems in Armor and Flesh. A handful of poems near the beginning of the book illustrate the notion of an “inside me” versus an “outside me,” or some kind of internal struggle, in which the narrator seeks self-peace. Five poems that obviously exhibited this idea are: One Black Girlhood, In the Street, Shook, Euridice to Orfeu in the Basement, and Hello, Monster. Obadike weaves these poems together using common diction and simple imagery; and for this reason, I think the sum of the poems helps tremendously in understanding each individual poem.

One Black Girlhood and In The Street
These are the first two poems in the book, and I think it's safe to assume the man in the first is the same person as the man in the second. In One Black Girlhood, the narrator introduces the two characters, the man and the girl, and In the Street depicts and struggle between them. The narrator says “We are fighting”; although the two are fighting, she says “I know he is protecting me,” and “I know he loves me,” reinforcing the concept of an internal struggle (fighting and protecting at the same time?).

Shook
This one was my favorite, and it's full of references to other poems. The first two stanzas set up a scene in which the narrator is observing an extremely obnoxious woman who is “gushing” out words, who then goes silent, and “acts normal.” The imagery of the third stanza creates a mindset in which the narrator is very tense; there is a “rumbling, but she can't locate it.” The fourth stanza shows that the narrator is afraid. She feels like she's sweating, she feels like “everybody can see [her] shaking.” I feel that “everybody watching” is a reference to the situation of In the Street (where the action takes place “in the street”). This stanza conjures up a horrific, panicky, insecure mental state. The next stanza, justified differently than the rest, changes perspective. It represents the good person that exists among the others, and peace and self-comfort to the narrator. “She wants to protect the talking woman.” reminds me again of In the Street (“I know he is protecting me.”). And the sixth stanza... a happy ending? “We feel my flesh.” ... “we” makes me think that now, she is composed. Now, “Nothing shakes or rumbles.”

Euridice to Orfeu in the Basement
First off, I think she is talking to herself (it goes with the theme). The first thing I noticed was that this poem is very simple and choppy, but to-the-point and musical through the repetition. It leaves me with an image of the narrator, and another person, as Obadike puts it, “a distant she,” the two of which cannot coexist. One more thing... “Let me drift behind you,” I feel, could be a reference to the first poem, One Black Girlhold (“Watching myself over my shoulder.”) I think subtle connections like these play a big role in establishing a theme, and thus giving more meaning to each individual poem.

Hello, Monster
Also a very simple poem, the presence of the theme is very clear: “I'm afraid to see me creeping out.”

As I said, these poems can be found in the beginning of the book, possibly representing an internal struggle that the author had as a young person (?). I found it interesting that the last poem in the collection starts every line with “The best way to be [something] is ...,” and through the use of repetition, creates an attitude of bold self-confidence. It's possible that the progression of the poems and the evolution of their attitudes make a statement about the development of the author's self-peace.

One last thing... I think the quote in the beginning of the book really sums up the proposed internal struggle of youth.

My questions are...

Were the poems written in the order that they can be found in the book?

and

What's in the pages between those given? More poems? Pictures?

Swing and a Miss

I'm not entirely sure how to evaluate this work as a whole. There are many poems about many things from many points of view.

I guess the one that I recall the most vividly would be a couple of the ones that seemed to deal heavily with race and discrimination. "One Black Girlhood" was kind of wild. The speaker spends two and a half stanzas describing herself as a white man in vivid details like "wavy and feathered" hair, the Seventies, and so on until dropping the bomb that this person is actually a "small, black girl".

I will now express my reaction with a traditoinal colloquialism from my generation: WTF??

Is this girl just pretending? Has she been watching too much television? Is this her ultimate, unachievable goal that she will spend the rest of her life longing for (most people have at least one)?

Reading back over for clues as to what the heck just happened, all I could gather to unite the white man and the black girl was the gesture of "watching myself over my shoulder". Perhaps looking back at who she was in the past? Unless she's had Michael Jackson's skin condition and a sex change, this seems very unlikely to be a literal description of her life. So how does this work? How does a "small, black girl" gain such insight into the white man that she "never doubted" was her?

Anyone?

Armor and Flesh

Mendi Obadike's poem "A Far Cry" caught my attention in particular. It seems to just recount getting lost in rural Tennesse, Where the narrator feels the white locals would react in a hostile manner towards a black woman. The poem's language conveys the unease she's feeling.She especially captures this feeling in the second stanza when she talks about being followed and suggests that the driver can identify her by her hair. she says "I think he will follow me / into a driveway if I try to turn around." This line really seems to capture that feeling of unease while leaving everything else to the reader's imagination. The unease continues through the entire poem in lines like "What makes them / tear our flesh sometimes?" and "Could be church / or a hanging."

I also really liked the metaphor of her ancestors' armor being the meak demeanor she adopts to fit in to the rural Tennessee atmosphere. It really implies quite a lot about her and her ancestors and their interaction withthe white population beyond whats written on the page.

I also liked the rythym of "Euridice and Orfeu in the Basement" and "Contagion." They both use line breaks and assonance really effectively and interestingly.

Jennifer McCauley

Mendi Lewis’s Armor and Flesh is sumptuous, introspective, sensitive, and in some moments unsettling. To review the book as a whole is difficult, as even one line from one of this talented autho r’s poems evokes enormous effect. Therefore, I will focus on a few of the most striking poems in the book, which encompass the overarching theme of finding one’s inner strength. The first piece sets the stage for the narrator’s inner journey, placing Lewis (or the implied author) in the skin of a white man. As this figure, the ‘she’ character is breezy, self-assured, and attractive to women. Lewis writes, “I never doubted this was me…Even though I was a small, black girl watching myself over my shoulder. and did not need to see my face or recognize my own soft voice.” As this white man the narrator’s hair is “wavy” and she wears a “cowboy hat” (a symbol of America-the wild west). Mendi obviously associates the white man (at least America’s perception of him), with control and power. In contrast, as a black girl, Lewis is “small” her voice “soft”. Although one may suggest Lewis desires to be a Caucasian male to acquire his rights and self-confidence, I argue Lewis already believes she IS this sort of person, regardless of her appearance. When she states, “I never doubted this was me…” and “I did not need to see my face or recognize my own soft voice”, she expresses an awareness of her own power, despite her “soft voice”. Throughout the course of the book, the narrator contrasts her quiet, internal voice with the woman hungry for ‘armor’,20for the powerful, the sexual and perhaps masculine. In “Her Subject”, the narrator is gentle and vulnerable, she desires to exit her own body for a few moments, to shed her insecurities, and not focus on how peers and lovers perceive her. She desires to lose her, “awkward pose, clunky shoes, my width and height”. Similarly, In “Not A Sound”, Lewis writes, “Rodeo red around her shoulders…need a red flag.” The poem is not in first person, however, if one were to identify this ‘she’ as Lewis, one could interpret this “rodeo red” as Lewis’s awareness of her fighter’s spirit. The red flag may suggest she requires the signal to move forward. (Also if the ‘rodeo red’ refers to a torero in Spanish bull fights, the bullfighter is usually a man. If Lewis is referencing American rodeos, the same rule applies. Is Lewis still identifying strength with the masculine? Or is she claiming that she possesses the power of a man and simply needs the confidence to unleash her true self? I still think the latter.). Nevertheless, In “Hello, Monster”, the narrator’s voice reflects a dark, even sinister personality: “I am the monster in my closet…At night under covers, I’m afraid to creep out…I threaten…everything I hold dear…I know what I’m like.” Lewis is keenly aware of the fierce, even destructive being sleeping within her soft exterior. In this poem she reveals her internal struggle with the ‘beast’ who threatens her self-confidence. In the final poem, “Out of The Water”, the author seems to have emerged from the struggle between her two selves, perhaps new, perhaps more self-aware. She writes, “My shell begins to harden the hot sky…I’m almost safe.” Note, her shell is not hardened BY the hot sky, she herself does the hardening. Her ‘shell’ is now strong enough to influence even her natural surroundings. However, the narrator states “I’m ALMOST safe”, implying she has not yet fully transformed into whatever self she desires to be; she is still a work in progress. Although Lewis’ book includes racial tension, sexuality, and feminism, the work is a ultimately a journey of self, of a woman struggling to create armor from flesh.