Strategy Response, Week 6

In his poem "Simon Peter," John Poch interestingly incorporates both poetic and Biblical elements. Though classical in the sense that the Bible is written in verse, contemporary poetry often eschews religious meaning in any of its subjects, particularly such drastic topics as Poch takes on in this poem. Not only does the poem consider ramifications and rewards of Christianity, but it does so from the first-person voice of one of Christ's apostles, Simon Peter.

The poem is separated into two sections, the first depicting the night that Jesus was captured by the Romans and brought to trial. As Jesus predicted, Simon Peter denies him three times before the rooster crows. The second part shows Peter's reaction upon hearing from Mary Magdalene that Jesus has risen again, this time his emotion both starkly different and yet oddly similar. For example, in the first section, the "I" (presumed to be Simon Peter in the context of the poem) denies his association with Christ and even makes light of the fact that the men with whom he speaks mistake him for an apostle. He stays and jokes with them until dawn, when he hears the rooster crow, at which time the imagery gives the reader the distinct feeling of regret: "We gossiped till the cock crowed, / his head a small volcano raised to mock stone." Peter expresses initial levity in speaking with the men who accused him, but as soon as he hears the rooster, he imagines its destructiveness and the implications of his denial of Christ. Likewise, the second section expresses his joy upon realizing that Jesus has resurrected, and yet a similar tone of darkness hangs over the poem, as the very first line expresses doubt: "Who could believe a woman's word, perfumed / in death?" He does, however, come to believe Mary and runs to the grave, where he finds no body. Believing someone has stolen his master, he sneaks away to weep and upon seeing Jesus later that evening sneaks away again to the sea, where so many of his lessons were learned. Again, despite Peter's joy at Christ's return, the poem ends very somberly: "The fire before me, the netted fish / behind. I'm carried where I will not wish."

Therefore, John Poch incorporates poetic and Christian ideas very well into his poem "Simon Peter" and even expresses the sincerety with which his apostles worshipped him through the first-person voice of Simon Peter himself and two very significant Biblical moments in the fisherman's life. The poem also does not ultimately decide for or against religion, as it expresses in both sections joy and regret in terms of belief in Jesus. Interesting that a contemporary poet could so easily mesh two seemingly opposite themes.