Images of Violence in Spera's Poems

This paper analyses two poems, titled, “Idle Hands” and “Kindness”, both written by one of the most prolific poet of his age, Gabriel Spera.

in Spera's poems “Idle Hands” and “Kindness,” the speakers assume the presence of an audience. Gabriel Spera takes words beyond poetry and steps into a space so exquisite and rare it can only be described as a spiritual reverence for experience. His poems are complex art forms surfacing from the deep ocean of his experience. The Standing Wave, by Gabriel Spera, the winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Poetry, is a book that demanded our attention for the emotional range of the poems and for the maturity of craft exhibited there (www.amazon.com).

The voice of the poems, always cool, is ironic, witty, aloof, compassionate, disgusted, and human by turns. Finally, though, the reason this book is the first choice of the judging panel is not only Spera's engagement with the big questions, but also that he asks them brilliantly and exhibits his willingness to provide answers to serious and troubling issues of the day, especially his unforgettable and essential "Idle Hands."

It has created a certain level of dramatic irony and allowed Spera to express himself and know that Ted will get her message. The reference to a rabbits cry has no soul is in conjunction to Spera's awareness that his wife was unfaithful and even though this occured the mistresses relationship had no depth or meaning as they had together. She also states that her own children are the roses, he has left although she ends up with the two roses a token of their love aand a prize in a way this could be constrewed as a triumphant feeling. The kindness that glides through his house refers to the ...