Contemporary Postmodernism: Lesson 1

What is metafiction?

What is a nonfiction novel?

What makes a verb irregular?

For questions 4-5 chose which category of poetry matches the excerpt or poem.

When the black snake flashed onto the morning road, and the truck could not swerve — death, that is how it happens.

–
Now he lies looped and useless as an old bicycle tire. – I stop the car and carry him into the bushes.

On the days when the rest
have failed you,
let this much be yours—
flies, dust, an unnameable odor,
the two waiting baskets:
one for the lemons and passion,
the other for all you have lost.
Both empty,
it will come to your shoulder,
breathe slowly against your bare arm.
If you offer it hay, it will eat.

Offered nothing,
it will stand as long as you ask.
The little bells of the bridle will hang
beside you quietly,
in the heat and the tree’s thin shade.
Do not let its sparse mane deceive you,
or the way the left ear swivels into dream.
This too is a gift of the gods,
calm and complete.