The Shared Emotions

My focus this week is on a poem by Adrienne Su, Savannah Crabs. Su's poems in this anthology are all written about what seems like her personal experiences, yet she has a way of pulling me in and making me feel my personal story in her poems.

Savannah Crabs pulls my southerner out and reminds me of the many, many, many stories I could share around the event of live crabs being brought into my house. From the time I was three I played with live blue crabs, learned to put them to sleep, and, like Su, would watch as "the first mute batch reddens and stills." Su takes me back to those times and to times when I was older and passed my blue crab lessons on to the younger kids in the family.

The fact that this poem is about more than just blue crabs really comes out in the last line of the poem when she reveals the prophecy of the hermit crab, "You'll find joy, but you must leave the family." Right here, I just grabbed my chest -- she punched me. I won't go into my personal family stuff on this blog, but I will say that I wanted to stand and applaud Su for this landing.

Other elements of this poem that really stood out to me are:
1.she titles the poem "Savannah Crabs" which makes me think of Savannah, Georgia -- a beautiful coastal city near Jacksonville, the last Florida city I lived in. Georgia and Florida share a border on the north east side of Florida yet Florida is known for its oranges and Georgia for its peaches, so the choice that Su makes to say the crabs were "packed tight as oranges" is an important one, I think. You can't really pack peaches tightly or they will bruise -- which I think says a lot about the conversation under the words about family and home.

2. the way Su moves us in time is really important in this piece. We start in the present "they come from the coast in the iced trunk." Then she moves us to the future, "She does not think / of her mother, who'll die this fall..." Then back to the present and a shared moment between siblings and parents -- she and her brother crouching and poking the crabs as the parents chase two across the lawn. Then the crabs predict the future, "You'll ache; you'll smother; you'll never be able to talk to each other." Then back to present, "It sits on the dryer." Then finally the last line gives us a glimpse of the future (as proper prophecies should). The use of time in this piece gives a greater picture of the family Su is profiling in this poem. Not only do we get the story that is happening with the crab, but we get the future stories of the relationships between siblings and between family in general. It's a powerful use of chronology.

3. Her verbs are amazing in this poem. Here are the ones that struck me most:
packed tight (S1:L1)
sunk in thoughts (S1:L3)
dread that will stain her (S2:L1)
tends a back pain (S2:L2)
crouch by the crate (S4:L2)
poke slow ones (S4:L3)
scuttle and flip (S5:L2)
we salt them (S5:L4)
reddens and stills (S8:L1,2)
I peer (S9:L1)

Su is my new favorite, this week. Her ability to make the personal seem universal is a powerful moment of a poet (if that is your goal). I look forward to more of her work in my future.

peacelovelight
Kiala