True/ False

I was especially intrigued by the poem True/ False we talked about in class. When I first read this piece of work, I thought, what I figured a lot of other people might have thought, that it was just a random numbered group of statements. I found myself flying past intriguing statements like "Sometimes I get feelings of deja vu," and "There's a number missing," because I was waiting for the give away at the end. You know, that profound statement that kind of draws everything together in conclusion. Well, I clearly did not give this poem enough consideration as I quickly moved on to the next one. When we discussed it in class I went back and read it a few more times and finally felt a connection to the author. I don't know if anyone else out there is like me but I constantly have to read portions of papers sometimes two or 5 times before I get the answer. I'm that guy that usually takes the whole time allotted to finish a test because it takes me so long to understand the questions. Maybe I have dyslexia or something, I don't know but there has to be a reason I can only read at a third grade level. Anyways, when I truly understood this piece of work I found that the author came to life through its words. I guess what I'm trying to say, and I'll use another example to explain it- Have you ever watched the travel channel series Anthony Bordain's No Reservations? Well, I watch him quite frequently and I love his use of words when he describes his feelings and environments of the places he visits. Without to much further digression I'll get to the point. If I were to read any material he wrote, I would be able to recognize his characterization even if his name weren't written at the top of the work. True/False embodies this characterization of the author with phrases like "A woman eating a banana..." and "I wet the bed" in its generated perversion. Also, the way he messes with your mind in #23 and #70; (the deja vu lines) show a sense of humor. Sooo many poems I read lack multiple feelings and characterization so when I finish True/False and realized it didn't have a definitive conclusion I feel like I discovered its meaning. To me, some poems have stories, and some poems evoke thought through characterizations. This poem was the latter.

Jay Woodward