Mel Pelletier: Introduction to Poems by Susan Kraft

It is not easy to create meaning in a single, compressed line of poetry. Susan has a knack for writing poems that are simple, concise, yet powerful. This semester she has focused much of her work around personifying the mysterious snake. She entangles the creature’s actual flexing and coiling with its figurative, erotic nature—and thus, Susan is able to “hold” her readers “firm” and “engulf” them in her words.
This poet is not afraid to use “I” throughout her works. Yet, within each poem, she is a different “I”, keeping the reader attentive and on edge so that we are part of the interactions: “smoke” and “fire,” “vibrations” and “heartbeat.”
“Split” is a very different poem than “Snake Dance” by means of a different narrator, and yet they are similar in their compression. In “Split,” she uses only four or five syllables per line to create the images of a mouth becoming a “fire-pit,” escaping the cliché of teeth by the use of “charcoal”—such a strange yet intriguing image. Susan manages to “engulf” her readers yet again, but this time in the fires of “Split” through her unexpected images.
I really hope you enjoy Susan’s works, and appreciate the compression in her short, but effective poetry. Embrace the rare experience and the mysterious creatures. Let Susan’s words coil into your imagination.


Snake Dance

I am legless
a burrowing lizard
my body flexes
side to side

My eyes fused, transparent.
Yet, on the ground
vibrations travel low
faint rumbles near
your heat radiating

I pull you in
with my coils.
Squeeze together, exhale
grip tightens

you can't breathe
heartbeat slows
I hold firm
then, engulf.


--Susan Kraft


Split

I am not leather,
not armored for this
heat. Your mouth, too,
becomes a fire-pit
with charcoal teeth, smoke
rings around the pink
tongue.

I pretend
this won't repeat,
won't become a fire-
storm-dance with our arms
waving away
heat. It comes from
the two of us, we
travel in imperfect
circles around
each other, heat
waves propel toward
our insides.

--Susan Kraft