You Are Jeff

“You Are Jeff” is a prose poem, which means that its text is not arranged in poetic lines, either with a particular metric scheme or in the form of free verse. Instead, its 24 segments (or stanzas) read like prose paragraphs. However, what makes it a poem is a deliberate and complex use of poetic devices other than meter and rhyme, especially the use of figurative language, intricate symbolism, strategic repetition of key images and phrases, and the density of emotion. The poem is lengthy and consists of a series of vividly depicted scenes, ranging from mostly or partially realistic to entirely metaphorical. It can be called a narrative poem since the outlines of a story, or overlapping stories, emerge from its fragmentary structure. Siken has stated that, as a painter, he thinks “in panels more often than […] in narrative. Series and sequence, sideways development, the repetition of images and scene […] ‘You Are Jeff’ is 24 panels from a really difficult room” (Russell, Legacy. “