Get the Job: A poem for writing anxiety and the color red

Get the Job: A Poem for writing anxiety and the color red

So cut into my words
syntax-slashing
style-slicing
red ink gets
the job done.
Meaning derived
from some swell of creativity:
it stretches the space
between end stop
and capital letter,
but can't quite get
the job done.

Today your assignment is:
What is this mess
of an essay--could it
be a poem confused
with prose--
be creative!
Be unconventional!
Be original!
And eventually
get the job done.
Or drench paper in red
for argument's sake.


I have yet to, I think, ever(?) post a poem I've written. (2011 is the year for taking risks!) I feel like I might be exaggerating, but I can't recall ever being so critical of myself over a blog post. So I must be telling the truth.

Having not yet tackled the readings for this week, yet considering the readings from previous weeks, I wanted to post this poem that I'd written in 2002 during my freshman year in college. I'm fairly certain that I wrote this poem with both the inspiration of high school English in mind, as well as my first year of writing courses at Pitt. I can't remember the precise course or assignment, but I can remember the moment of inspiration to write this poem. In my mind's eye, I can see the draft in my hand, covered in (what seemed like) violent red slashes. It didn't take much to consider the rough draft as a conceit to a B-rated horror flick. So much red. So much negativity. So much ink bleeding from the margins of the page. I think: what a terrible fate to befall an unassuming, innocent piece of white print paper!

So cut into my words: does red ink "really" get the job done? What "job" is being done? We're discussing multiple jobs, here: the assignment given, the assignment completed, the assignment evaluated. Interesting: the task at hand, while in my hands, then out of my hand(s), is executed by someone elses' hands. Think about it.

I'll also mention that I posted this in mind of the creative submissions in the "Teaching English for the Two-Year College" journal, as it (to my pleasant surprise!) also publishes creative pieces.