{"id":344,"date":"2019-09-14T01:38:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T07:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/?p=344"},"modified":"2019-09-14T01:38:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-14T07:38:14","slug":"poetism-commentary-im-not-sorry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/2019\/09\/14\/poetism-commentary-im-not-sorry\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetism Commentary: “I’m Not Sorry”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The poem in question: I’m Not Sorry<\/a><\/p>\n

I wrote this poem, and at least one other<\/a>, during a class at BYU: HEPE 129 (it’s pronounced “heppie”).\u00a0 I believe it was called “Fitness and Lifestyle Management,” though that may have changed in the 20 years since I was there.\u00a0 It was a class I took for P.E. credit, because I was, and am, adverse to actual physical education.<\/p>\n

My then-girlfriend was also in the class, and I would often find ways not to pay as much attention as I should.\u00a0 One time a friend of my girlfriend was talking to me and I said something about doing something “metaphorically.”\u00a0 Confused, she asked if I meant “metaphysically,” and my girlfriend rolled her eyes and responded, “No, he definitely means metaphorically.”\u00a0 I have no recollection of any other part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

Anyway, one day during class I jotted down “I’m Not Sorry.”\u00a0 It doesn’t have any particular personal meaning that I recall; I just thought it would be funny.\u00a0 I guess it’s obstensibly about someone getting out of a bad relationship.<\/p>\n

The lyrical style is inspired by They Might Be Giants, probably their song “Hey Mr. DJ I Thought You Said We Had a Deal.”\u00a0 At the time I must have been listening to TMBG a lot, as the back side of the page on which I wrote “I’m Not Sorry” contains the lyrics to “The End of the Tour,” which I maintain is one of their finest compositions.<\/p>\n

For me, the dearth of punctuation in the poem emphasizes the flippant attitude of the speaker toward the person he is addressing; he can’t be bothered to dress it up for her.<\/p>\n

There are some minor variations in the different versions I have.\u00a0 The lines<\/p>\n

\n

Act like I haven’t even heard
And you’ll slam the phone down in my face<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

are sometimes written as<\/p>\n

\n

And act like I haven’t even heard
You’ll slam the phone down in my face<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

\n

Appeal, appeal to my guilt sense
Entice me, you must think I’m dense<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

is sometimes written as<\/p>\n

\n

Appeal, you appeal to my guilt sense
Entice me, you must think I’m so dense<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The last two lines as originally written are<\/p>\n

\n

I don’t wanna see you anymore
Because I already said I’m sorry once before.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Finally, here is an image of the original handwritten version:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The poem in question: I’m Not Sorry I wrote this poem, and at least one other, during a class at BYU: HEPE 129 (it’s pronounced “heppie”).\u00a0 I believe it was called “Fitness and Lifestyle Management,” though that may have changed in the 20 years since I was there.\u00a0 It was a class I took for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grassmonk.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}