I Lost My Talk

“I Lost My Talk” is a free-verse poem with no consistent rhyme scheme, meter, or form. The poem has four stanzas: one quatrain with four lines, one cinquain with five lines, and two tercets with three lines each.

Each stanza ends with a period to show a finality of thought, though a connection to the next stanza is also present, as if the poet is attempting to craft a well-structured essay. Related to this use of punctuation is the use of enjambment, or ideas flowing from one line to the next. Joe uses enjambment to force lines that seem like they could have punctuation into the next line, showing the speaker’s increasingly emotionally-charged agitation. The most prominent example of this is “I speak like you / I think like you” (Lines 6-7), a run-on sentence that builds intensity as the speaker laments that losing her language has meant completely losing herself as well.

Each line is generally short and to the point, with simple and conversational diction, as Joe writes to convey a clear message that cannot get lost in translation.