DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Review of “Parable of the Traveler from Qatar” by: John Bradley

            If you don’t like an upfront, honest, and interpersonal point of view of a narrator, don’t read “Parable of the Traveler from Qatar,” by John Bradley.  The prose poem, told in the first person in an ambiguous yet descriptive manner, is about someone who lives in solitude in the country of Qatar, who paints water colors in his spare time.  These water color portraits are of people he knows, and may not know, as well, such as his mother or attendants at a gas station.  There is an odd and surreal tone to the poem, in the way the narrator describes Qatar, a seemingly far away, exotic, and in a way, holy, land.  An example of this surrealness is the flashing sign that tells in ninety-nine languages to Behold Qatar.  The first paragraph differs intensely with the following paragraphs, because in the first paragraph the narrator mentions many people that he interacts with, where he tells them of his return, but in the following sentences there is a strong sense of solitude I interpret as a reader.  The content is strewn together in an interesting way; the elements of content manner seem like they shouldn’t make sense, but Bradley manages to connect everything so that it is very coherent.  Bradley makes the poem successful by defining a place that the reader may find interesting, because of the unique characteristics and diction throughout the poem.

 

Review of “Crimes Against the Future” by: John Bradley

            If you don’t like prose poetry with religious undertones, don’t read “Crimes Against the Future” by John Bradley.  This poem combines elements which could be considered religious, such as a description of Jesus Christ’s sweat-stained headband, along with malicious, spiteful elements, such as prostitution and murder.  The main narrative is about policemen breaking into a motel room where a man and a woman are engaging in sexual acts.  There are some odd elements, that for me, as a reader, I had trouble connecting with whatever plot there seems to be in this poem.  For example, I don’t understand the allusion to House of the Good Shepard, along with the allusion to Jesus.  Some parts of the poem seem to be there not to support whatever plot there may be to the prose part of the poem, but to be there more for aesthetic reasons, as if Bradley wrote the piece in a stream-of-consciousness type of way.  Although this may be true, I still enjoyed the poem, because of the interesting diction and because of the ambiguity that gives it a sense of mystery.  

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.