Critique of Nicki's Poem

Nicki’s poem, Still the Same, appears quite literal and starts us off with street lights and the author waiting for someone. From the infinite cycle of the street lights and the cars, but the contrast of the the author waiting and the coffee both standing still, we can easily see, generally, that life is moving forward, but the author is not, at least in a certain sense. And this is because of someone she is waiting for. I am not certain to the tone of the poem. It may be that the author is definitely willing to wait for this person, or reluctantly doing so, and unable to do anything about it.

Nicki has chosen her poem to start somewhere that sells coffee, and the perspective is of someone waiting for another while having coffee at night. Because it’s at night, I presume this is supposed to be a date. I feel it is implied that the author loves whoever this is. Despite the fact that this person is not there, the author is still waiting. Whether this is love for family or love for another, it seems unconditional. The infinite cycle around her is contrasted with the coffee and herself, and I think that, to my mind, sums up the poem.

Given the tools she was presented with in picking this theme and this location, I think Nicki did an okay job. I might omit some lines. An example being lines 12, 16 and 17. They repeat again the poem, but I don’t feel that in this poem, they belong. Repetition can be useful, but in this case, I think the contrasts used in the poem get the point across very well.

While I also enjoy the contrast, I feel it’s somewhat lost when you consider that the street lights and cars are on an infinite loop. That is, they’re not quite changing that much either? They’re doing the same thing, over and over. It’s almost kind of a cycle, which portrays a completely different idea then “moving forward,” which is what I assume this poem is about, not being able to move forward because of the other person.

All in all, I enjoyed this poem, but I think it can be improved upon. I think it could have been condensed a little, and maybe even expanded with newer more vibrant details that more effectively express just how stuck in time the author is while everything around them is moving forward.