FALSEWORK by Gary Geddes

Three mo' poems...hoorah

GRAVITY, GRAVITAS

To me, the most interesting and best poems are the verses that are multiple elaborate stanzas of descriptions of a moment that lasts less than thirty seconds. Less than half the time it takes to read the piece. A story from some one affected by the tragedy of the bridge's collapse who I would most like to hear; someone who was a victim of the miscalculations. Geddes does marvelous work in illustrating the moment of the crash, and shows how much thought occurs during a few seconds.

Fear, instinct, faith. All a part of the emotions conveyed through the bridge workers' recollection. He thinks about his family, the science of how he will die, and accepting his death is the underlying feeling throughout all his instant brain patterns when he starts to fall. The one thing that saves him is himself knowing he can change his fate; he removes his heavy tool belt before it has time to sink him to the bottom of the lake. "No time for philosophy; no time for analysis. Simply, I'm going to die."
When your life flashes before your eyes, you realize all that matters and forget all that you're unsure about.

ROOTS OF HEAVEN

"How little it takes
to sever connections :a trigger,
a saw, a miscalculation."
A parent mourns for the loss of her son. The metaphor is clear and explained as part of the poem. A massacre of elephants at Lake Chad and the tragedy of the Second Narrows Bridge.
The mother becomes "that leathery beast bellowing her pain, trunk raking the the air for the scent ofher newborn." There is a connection between man and nature; caring for their children and how parents detail their worst nightmare as losing their children.

MOTT

I enjoy the diction in this piece especially. "fighting a capricious current, helmet smacking an impossibly bent girder, jungle of twisted steel, roller coaster to eternity." It is a good illustration of the dark and gloomy lake floor that the diver is working through. It's a tough job, alot of chances that one could die in that particular situation. Also, it's tough having to search for the dead. And that is portrayed in this poem. An encounter with an electric eel creates a tense moment in thie piece because we already know how delicate he must perform his task.