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bill,
thank you for this lovely poem. it is a poignant expression of being reborn. i shared it with my beautiful son whose heart is hurting…he is stuck in his crysallis and will emerge anew in his time..
mary
Thank you, Mary!
I'm honored that you shored this with your son. May he find peace and joy.
Best,
Bill
Bill,
Finding y/our own deepest voice amid felt confusion and loss
and expressing it with such mindfullness is a gift to us all.
Thank you for opening & sharing the heights & depths
of your mind and soul the way you do.
Moved by the muses recently too,
D a r i n a
Thanks Darina!
Peace,
Bill
I read and reread this poem and couldn't understand what your are trying to say here. I don't very much care for abstract poems. But I want to make an effort, and still don't get it!
I read the comments of Dainal & Mary and they are vague. My kind of poem is the one that hit s you right in the face and make a definite statement. Not the kind that you think and think and come up with your own interpretations and still not know what the poet is trying to convey in the first place. Pray, enlighten me!
Hi Abdul,
Thanks for sharing your concerns.
But this isn't an abstract poem. It uses imagery, symbolism and metaphor to convey meaning. It's by no means a great example of how to do that, but it tries.
Poetry that ”hits you right in the face and makes a definite statement” is nothing more than prose broken into lines. Poetry is supposed to require an interaction with the text – the meaning is created someplace between the reader and the text – where the two meet.
I never explain my poems. So, sorry that I can't help.
However, I thank you for making the effort.
Peace,
Bill
“Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you,
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.” ~ Christina Rossetti.
Or,
“To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour” - William Blake
You can tell that this is poetry in the way it looks and by the way it sounds when read aloud. Your eye sees the pattern of the lines, and your ear catches the rhythm and the rhyme. Now this is poetry - NOT prose broken into lines! On the otherhand, you put your lines together and your “poem” becomes prose and still it won't make sense. And of course, you don't EVER EXPLAIN YOUR POEMS. Maybe, there's nothing to explain!!
Yes, those are fine poets. And there is nothing in my poem that is more obscure than the ones you offer. But poetry has changed in the 100-200 years since those were written.
Modern poetry does not require rhyme, nor the syntax of prose. If you are willing to familiarize yourself with some modern poetry, it gets much easier to read.
Here are a couple of good sites:
Famous Poets and Poems
Academy of American Poetry
Modern American Poetry
This poem is by the current US Poet Laureate:
The Something
by Charles Simic
Here come my night thoughts
On crutches,
Returning from studying the heavens.
What they thought about
Stayed the same,
Stayed immense and incomprehensible.
My mother and father smile at each other
Knowingly above the mantel.
The cat sleeps on, the dog
Growls in his sleep.
The stove is cold and so is the bed.
Now there are only these crutches
To contend with.
Go ahead and laugh, while I raise one
With difficulty,
Swaying on the front porch,
While pointing at something
In the gray distance.
You see nothing, eh?
Neither do I, Mr. Milkman.
I better hit you once or twice over the head
With this fine old prop,
So you don't go off muttering
I saw something!
Do you think this is abstract?
Peace,
Bill
I know what you mean. With 'Free Verse' style of writing, people like us can dabble in poetry writing, whereas in the past only people skilled in the craft can tackle poetry writing. What finally matter is the characteristic of the beast - the underlying theme. Your point well made and so taken. By the way, the poem 'The Something' is good.