Sign Inventorary, Week 1

Robert Creeley

I Know a Man

As I sd to my
friend, beame I am
always talking,-John, I

sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what

can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,

drive, he sd, for
christ's sake, look
out where yr going.

*There is an interesting use of the lack of vowels.

*There is an odd change in the third stanza where the author uses the & for and. Why do that now? This is the only stanza that doesn't have word without vowels.

*The peom is one long conversation, which is an interesting way to write a poem.

*The speaker calls his friend John, but he points out that that is not his name.

*The speaker speaks out about the darkness, which is mentioned right after his friend's name.

*What are the speaker's avoiding?

*Why is the speaker always talking? It is a flaw in the character or something else?

*The goddamn big car is a change of tone for the poem. Maybe it is a shot at the industrial advances.

*The peom is one sentence, which is an interesting stream of thought. There are two commas, but no periods until the end.

*The title of the peom talks about a man, but nowhere do we find out anything about him.