A Thought on Dougherty's Poetry

Poetry is an odd discursive mechanism that seems to incorporate almost every different style, genre, aesthetic value, and interpretive potential possible when a message is transmitted and received. The one definitive differentiation we (as students) are taught to make in literary discourse is that between poetry and prose. However, the fine, dividing line that once fostered this differentiation, partially due to the influence of literary theory, has all but dissipated in recent years. A prime example of this once taboo convergence is evident in Sean Thomas Dougherty’s collection of poems aptly named Broken Hallelujahs. Having said this, it’s important to understand that Dougherty’s poetry is best experienced through his dramatic readings (much like Ginsberg) which expose him as a modern beatnik. One poem in particular which espouses these sentiments is called, What We Keep.
What We Keep makes use of punctuation (in particular periods) to separate different thoughts like prose does, but most of these “sentences” are actually incomplete and therefore sentence fragments which is common to traditional poetry. Also, the construction and appearance of the poem is reminiscent of a short essay or long paragraph which students would usually associate with prose writing and aesthetics since traditional poetry is often written in relatively short lines that have purposefully large spaces between them. Therefore, simply based on appearance, it would be difficult on first glance for someone not knowing that this is a poem to definitively say it is one since it incorporates characteristics of both prose and poetry.
The beneficial aspect of Dougherty’s modern beatnik style is that it allows him to use vivid imagery in what is essentially a single stream of interrelated thoughts. When a reader reads through What We Keep, then, he or she is practically bombarded with visual images (some straightforward, some more ambiguous) from beginning to end, and therefore, once concluding the poem, must piece all the images together in order to grasp the overall picture. It is as if Dougherty is painting a verbal mural on the mind of the reader in what could be synonymous with modern art. This sentiment is evident in the following line: “To swing against slag, the purple hills of mid-autumn outside the city of bridges and blue sun, the distant tintinnabulations of church bells, blur of twilight, candles lit by widows in the windows of old farmhouses.” Within this single stream of consciousness, and this is only one of many, there are at least five (arguably more) visual displays of description which all at once evoke an emotional and mental response to a place the reader may not fully understand but can relate to because of the imagery involved. This aspect of relation is paramount in poetry because once a poet loses his audience to the unknown; the audience becomes bored or simply detached and ultimately loses sight of the overall picture.
Now, I mentioned earlier that Dougherty utilizes ambiguous, metaphorical imagery which he intersperses throughout literal images in order to paint the overall picture. For instance, he says, “I sip glasses of harsh gold” which I interpret as a metaphor for drinking rum which he references earlier in the poem. This would also explain the use of the adjective “harsh.” Another example of this would be the line that follows: “What keeps us from worms is this tough, rough-handed kiss.” The “tough, rough-handed kiss” I interpret as a metaphorical embrace between two lovers who are/were going through a rough patch in their relationship. Yet, it is this embrace which sustains them keeping them from death which is alluded to in the beginning of the poem when Dougherty references a “graveyard.” This foreshadowing is what allows Dougherty to paint an overall picture from beginning to end.