Tom C. Hunley Plunk Review
By William Nesbitt
The first poem self-reflexively comments on
the insufficiencies and limitations of language,
the self-consciousness of self-expression, and the
difficulty getting started through just two letters
in the brilliantly titled and well-placed “Um.”
Through the poem we realize that our failed attempts at communication are just another one of
the “awful noises.” As the narrator says, “‘I realize
that whatever I’ve been saying / isn’t the point at
all,’” knowing all too well that talking about the
thing is not the thing. The finger pointing at the
ocean is never the ocean. The poem concludes
with the narrator ( Ɩ