#1 (Absurdists, Confessions, and Martians! Oh my!)

So, I felt like I had journeyed to Oz after this class discussion. The unique viewpoints of both the absurdists and martian poets have the ability to make your head hurt, just because they look at all things in such a unique way. I had been introduced to these styles before, and remembered the Martian poem distinctly because I liked it so much. However, I still enjoyed hearing about these styles again. One of my all-time favorite genres of poetry is the confessional genre. In my last Creative Writing class, I did an in-depth study of a poem by Sharon Olds, who belongs to the neo-confessional category. I think that confessional poetry is such a beautiful expression because it is truth-based. It doesn't try to hide what emotions are really like in the human experience. Even though confessional poets have frequently experienced tragedy, their work does not deny the beauty of emotion on both ends of the spectrum, from despair to happiness. I would highly recommend work by Sharon Olds to read if you also enjoy the confessional genre. This was a great class discussion of these three forms that I thoroughly enjoyed. I look forward to being exposed to more poems in all of these genres in the future, since they are so set apart from the poem in its traditional sense.