The Slip – Connor Strongman

When potholes appear on the highway

I see them as ditches and ravines.

I’m trying to see them through the windshield,

I’m trying to see a way to avoid them

I’m trying to steer away.

I’m thinking

I’m Thinking of a way

To leap or lunge

Over the ravines,

Not plummet or plunge

Down the ditch

The abyss is calling me

The brakes slip

And I fall

Down,

Down,

Down,

Forever falling to the bottom…

Into the nothingness…

Of the abyss…

The poem, “The Slip”, written by Connor Strongman tells of someone who has lost their own meaning and purpose in life. Someone who is in despair and is slipping away.  The main theme of this poem seems to be despair or loss. I see this in the poem where it reads, “when potholes appear on the highway, I see them as ditches and ravines” and where it reads, “The abyss is calling me”.  Both of these lines have very dark, deep meanings and signify a very pessimistic point of view from the poet. The poem reveals the struggle some people have with everyday life and the sad outcome.

This poem could be interpreted in many ways.  Like all poems this poem is open for interpretation but I interpret Connor Strongman’s “The Slip” as either someone losing their will to live and slipping over the edge “Into the nothingness of the abyss” or someone losing the battle with a drug addiction.  They were clean and sober but slowly rolled towards a rellaps when they were faced with obstacles like the metaphorical “ditches and ravines”. Their “brakes slip”, meaning their temptation took over and they rellaps or begin “forever falling” back to their addiction.

Connor Strongman’s poem, “The Slip” incorporates many literary devices throughout the stanzas.  The poem itself is an open free verse poem. In the first stanza Connor Strongman wrote “potholes”, “ditches” and “ravines”; these all metaphorically represent problems or obstacles that the character is facing along their highway of life.  In the same stanza the other uses a simile to compare the “potholes” to “ditches and ravines” to emphasize or hyperbolize the problems/obstacles. In the second stanza Connor Strongman begins referring to the metaphorical ditches and ravines as “them” and writes about trying to spot them and avoid them. The second stanza also uses the repetition of the words, “I’m trying to” to show the difficult struggle the character is facing.  This stanza also uses alliteration in the first line where it reads, “them through”. The third stanza starts with the same words that the second stanza ended with. This is more repetition. The third stanza manipulates rhyme and alliteration to stress how difficult the situation is for the character. “Leap or lunge”, “plummet or plunge”, and “Down the ditch” are all alliteration, and the first two rhyme. This stanza describes the internal thought process of the character and their plans of attack on the problem/obstacle.  The fourth and final stanza is the climax of the poem. The character has lost the fight with their presented problem. Connor Strongman repeats the word, “down” three times in the fourth stanza. I believe he does this to emphasize how hard the loss was and how much of a difficult situation it was. The poet refers to it as “the abyss” which by definition is a deep or seemingly bottomless chasm. “Abyss” usually symbolizes a loss of will or purpose. The character has given in. “The abyss is calling me” which is also personifying the abyss means that the character has lost their will or their desire to trump over the issue.  “Forever falling to the bottom” is a paradox that includes the alliteration of “forever” and “falling”.