Buk wrote like a dice roll: just like
clicking loot the Vegas crap-shoot brings.
When we hear about the graveside show, the call
I recall: the one from screenwriter Larry Mollin.
He says: if ever he has to remember the line from
Bukowski he needs to get a line on: that is the
line he needs to reel-in towards the desert island
set of books to get him through, until the rescue
ship arrives, it is the line which reads:
We are not friends, my friend!
That’s the lifeline of Hank’s to get all of us
through this imperfect storm.
There was a funeral in San Pedro.
Yeh…………………...it was ours!
From: Crosswalk Casserole
Summary
“THERE WAS A FUNERAL IN SAN PEDRO” by Michael C. Ford is a poem centered on place and geography, memory, mortality and loss. Its imagery is anchored in San Pedro. The poem develops its subject through recurring images and shifts in emotional pressure rather than reducing the experience to a single statement.
Analysis
Voice
A personal, first-person speaker combines recollection with direct emotional address.
Style and form
The poem is first-person. Its brevity concentrates attention on juxtaposition, line breaks, and the pressure created by what the poem leaves unstated.
Themes and imagery
Its strongest thematic currents include place and geography, memory, mortality and loss. Concrete images give those abstractions physical weight, while changes in diction and pace keep the poem from settling into a single emotional register.
Reading the poem
A productive way to read “THERE WAS A FUNERAL IN SAN PEDRO” is to watch how its images change function as the poem progresses. Details that initially establish scene or memory become emotional evidence. The result is a poem whose argument is carried through association, rhythm, and image as much as through explicit statement.
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Source & rights
Source: Crosswalk Casserole (Lawn Gnome Publishing, First Edition, 2013)
Rights: © 2013 Lawn Gnome Publishing. All rights reserved.