Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Eileen Myles’ "LA/Driving Poems #1" is a brief but evocative meditation on movement, perception, and the layered experience of contemporary life. The poem?s short lines and enjambment create a sense of immediacy, as if the speaker is capturing fleeting impressions while driving through Los Angeles.

The poem opens with "This is the emerging / possibility of writing / this way," establishing a self-conscious reflection on the act of writing itself. Myles suggests that there is a new form or process being discovered in real time, mirroring the spontaneity and improvisational nature of their work. The phrase "writing / this way" is ambiguous, potentially referring to both the subject matter—driving in LA—and a broader stylistic shift toward a more fragmented, observational mode.

The phrase "down a thimble of / a street" compresses space, making the road seem small, almost insignificant, a stark contrast to the grandeur of "a cake of a / view." The metaphor of a "cake of a view" is striking—decadent, layered, and possibly artificial, reflecting the lush, constructed landscapes of Los Angeles. This juxtaposition between the diminutive ("thimble of a street") and the extravagant ("cake of a view") highlights the contradictions of the city itself—dense and sprawling, intimate and overwhelming.

Myles then describes "bushy imported trees," an acknowledgment of Los Angeles? unnatural, curated greenery. The phrase subtly critiques the city?s relationship with nature—its palm trees and lush gardens are not indigenous but rather transplanted, much like the people who come to LA seeking reinvention. The sense of dislocation and artifice is reinforced by the next image: "the pop music given / to me by some young / person." The speaker receives music as a gift, a gesture that suggests generational exchange and a kind of cultural passing-down. Pop music, often ephemeral and commercial, contrasts with the poem’s introspective tone, adding another layer of juxtaposition between the personal and the mass-produced.

The final phrase—"in fact / the one person I know"—grounds the poem in a moment of isolation. Despite the expansive city, the imported trees, the pop music, there is a loneliness embedded in this admission. The speaker acknowledges that, amid all this external noise and movement, there is only one real connection.

Myles captures a moment of motion, both literal and metaphorical, where the act of driving becomes intertwined with the act of writing. The poem distills Los Angeles into a series of images—imported nature, artificial beauty, fleeting sounds—while hinting at the alienation and intimacy that coexist within the city?s landscape. It’s a meditation on presence, perception, and the strange, shifting terrain of contemporary life.

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