Mentor Poem #2 "Carved" by Jon Silkin

(Still looking for the full text of his poem to post here. Please refer to your notes :)) Jon Silkin's poem "Carved" is interesting with its blunt, colloquial tongue and bare presentation of image. The rhythm is simple, yet poignant with the message it carries. As far as I know, every living thing dies at least once, and yet, we fear this passage. Silkin has us pause to gaze upon this fear. He forces us to see the "dead black bird" as it is, "very dead". And as we stare at the unsympathetic "red ants" devouring the fallen creature, we witness a strange transformation. The dogs bark, as if at the gates of Hades, as the live ants become "red death" and the black bird becomes a "thing" personified and uncaring. A metamorphosis has occurred, the live ants spill over the bird like blood and the black bird becomes larger, like a shadow, a "thing", perhaps fear itself.

*Try mimicking Silkin's poem for its structure, diction, rhythm, and use of imagery. Want a challenge? Attempt to present a transformation in the images where one thing becomes something else by the end of the poem. Consider creating a transformation that shifts from the concrete to the absract.