Poems are a way to express people's ideas and reflect on their feeling. They have many different depths and themes. Poetry can reveal a lot about the person writing it. It can show their sensitivity, sense of humor, what they have gone or their thoughts on life. The poem I choose from poetry 180 was "Lift Your Right Arm" by Peter Cherches.
This poem uses the idea of giving and taking orders, but it turns it into something funny. It is funny because he is throwing the words back in the ladies face in a way. She tells him to give her orders and he's okay then tell me to lift my right arm. Pretty much twisting what she says, but stilling doing what she says. It also portrays the idea of rather being a follower than being a leader. Showing it is easier to do what someone else tells you to than to think up your own ideas and telling them what to do. In the poem the lady was probably also testing his patience, by not saying anything and that's why when he asks "what next" that's why she says now its your turn to give the orders, showing him just to wait. In the end though the poem is simply about giving and taking directions. .
My deciphering of this poem shows you can look deep and see the many meaning or you can just look at the surface and just see the main point. It also shows that poems can be interpreted differently depending on the reader. Peter Cherches could have had totally different ideas about this poem. I like this poem because of it's sense of humor and bit of saucy sarcasm. Many of the poems that I had looked at on this website had no depth, no hidden meaning, not saying this was an extremely deep poem. It was just more interesting than most of them. Another poem I also liked was "The Panic Bird" by Robert Phillips. It included symbolism and feelings. The feeling were of fear and panic which the author hates, yet they always come back. The bird symbolizes the fear, which he hates and he describes it in depth through-out the poem.