About the Poems - JR
About the Poems
by Joseph Ross I’m grateful that this diverse group of my poems is appearing in No Tell Motel and I hope you enjoy them. I have an abiding interest in graffiti art. I especially appreciate the art that memorializes names. In “The Graffiti Artist’s Last Supper,” I merge the biblical words from the Last Supper with the scene of a graffiti artist painting a memorial tag. I hope the collision of these two “texts” brings about some insight. “American Pieta” is an elegy that links an iconic photograph from the Kent State killings in 1970 to Michelangelo’s “Pieta.” “Conversation After Class” recalls the true story of a conversation I had a few years back with a former student. It tries to reveal the violence that is often so common in the lives of young people. Sometimes a poem just plays. That’s what “The Calla Lily” does. I hope. “Connect The Dots” is one of those phrases that sticks in our political discourse. This poem asks a question about our efforts to keep people safe. How would you answer it?