"The Possibility" Poetry Blog.

The Possibility

The lizard on the wall, engrossed,
The sudden silence from the wood
Are telling me that I have lost
The possibility of good.

I know this flower is beautiful
And yesterday it seemed to be,
It opened like a crimson hand.
It was not beautiful to me.

I know that work is beautiful.
It is a boon. It is a good.
Unless my working were a way
Of squandering my solitude.

And solitude was beautiful
When I was sure that I was strong.
I thought it was a medium
In which to grow, but I was wrong.

The jays are swearing in the wood.
The lizard moves with ugly speed.
The flower closes like a fist.
The possibility recedes.

               -James Fenton

 

     This poem is basically about a person's view on beauty and they are seeing it in an unusual way. James Fenton describes things that used to be beautiful, but now they are ruined because something about himself changed. The rhythm and rhyme makes the poem flow really well and it fits the idea; it flows like beauty, although, each stanza ends strongly with a different sound and feeling than it began with. The antecedant scenario may have been James Fenton contemplating beauty, the changes in his life that have made things uglier, or a new viewpoint of beauty itself. The tone is honest, a little melancholy, and reflective. It makes me wonder and feel a bit sad.

"The Coming of Wisdom with Time" Poetry Blog (10/23).

NOTE: I know this is a day late, but I was extremely sick all weekend and I wasn't even lucid enough to know that it was Sunday, let alone that I had a poetry blog due. Sorry!

The Coming of Wisdom With Time
though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth.
               -William Butler Yeats

     Often times we think that something that is shorter is easier to decipher, but shorter does not mean simplicity. I had to read this several times to understand what the words meant. It says that although there are many leaves, there is only one root and will always only be one. Then Yeats says through all the "lying days" - days of leisure- when this person was younger he/she swayed his/her "leaves and flowers in the sun." The last line says this person may now "wither into the truth." The meaning could be that when we are younger, we are like a tree and sway our many leaves in a sense, but when we become old, we remember our root- our greatest common factor in a way, and die knowing the truth.
     I'm not sure if this is a typo, but I found it interesting that the first word was not capitalized. And, obviously, the shortness of this poem is a very important structural aspect. This shortness gives it impact and is easy to remember.
     The antecedant scenario could have been William Butler Yeats remembering his youth and what changed when he got older. The tone seems to be wise and knowing and pensive.
     This is definitely one of my favorite poems that we've read so far.

"Mr. Fear" Poetry Blog

Mr. Fear
He follows us, he keeps track.
Each day his lists are longer.
Here, death, and here,
Something like it.

Mr. Fear, we say in our dreams,
What do you have for me tonight?
And he looks through his sack,
His black sack of troubles.

Maybe he smiles when he finds
The right one. Maybe he's sorry.
Tell me, Mr. Fear,
What must I carry

Away from your dream.
Make it small, please.
Let it fit in my pocket,
Let it fall through

The hole in my pocket.
Fear, let me have
A small brown bat
And a purse of crickets

Like the ones I heard
Singing last night
Out there in the stubbly field
Before I slept, and met you.
-Lawrence Raab

Lawrence Raab was born in 1946 in Massachusetts and often writes about human fallability and doubt and the fine lines of our lives. This poem definitely goes into those categories because Raab writes about the line between having fear and being given fear. The antecedant scenario was probably just Lawrence Raab being frightened and thinking about fear; maybe he was wishing for an entity to blame it on- "Mr. Fear."
The climax is a little difficult to find in this poem; it feels like it is leading up to something throughout the poem as a whole, but I saw the climax as being "make it small, please." It feels as though Raab is leading up to this point: let the fear he gives me be small. After that line, the emotion seems to coast down til he says, "before I slept, and met you."
This poem's tone seems to be a little pensive or pleading. He wonders about the nightmares and terrors we all get from this dark Santa-esque being and how we want the least amount of fear possible and go back to when we weren't afraid- when we had "a small brown bat and a purse of crickets like the ones I heard singing last night."

"I am the Moon" Identity Poem.

I am the moon.
Bright, changing, yet constant.
Less important than the sun
and less mysterious than the stars.

I am the moon.
I'm distant and covered in scars.
I watch from afar
too observant for my own good.

I am the moon.
Though far, I'm always present.
You may not see me when the sun is bright
but I 'm still there.

I am the moon.
Lonely at times
beautiful at others.
Silently shedding
          my light on the world.

Heart of Darkness Alternate Ending

With my heart heavy in dread, I approached the looming, dark door; the only bit of light coming from the gleaming golden knocker. My fist gripped the engraved gold and made three heavy, low thuds.
The door creaked open a few silent moments later and I saw her: the Intended.
Her face was downcast, shadows spilling over her stiff black dress. After a year of knowing of Kurtz's demise in that black forest, she still wore the strict clothes reserved for mourning.
"May I help you?" she asked meekly, staring at the cold stone ground.
"My name is Marlowe," I answered with great reluctance, "I knew Kurtz in his final breaths."
She looked up immediately with her bland and empty eyes widening.
"Please come in," she said in a hushed tone.
I entered and she led me into her living room. The lights were dim and the air felt thick with sorrow and longing. The darkness was barely kept at bay by the candles that were scattered about.
The Intended sat on the edge of an over-sized chair, her face pale, and I on the sofa across from her.
We sat in uncomfortable silence for what felt like an eternity. She finally looked up at me and cracked the silence with a sigh.
"So, Mr. Marlow, you knew my fiancé?" she asked solemnly.
I looked into those glassy eyes but before I could speak, she continued.
"You were present at his passing?" she asked in a whisper.
I swallowed hard. "Yes."
She seemed a little hesitant. "Please, what were his final words?"
I could feel my heartbeat increase. She obviously needed closure, but I couldn't bring myself to disrupt her world.
"Please," she begged again with more intensity.
I closed my eyes and nodded once. I felt I needed to confess this awful truth to the woman who most deserved to know.
"The horror," I whispered, "the horror. Those were his final words."

"Beginning Again" Poetry Blog.

Beginning Again
"If I could stop talking, completely
cease talking for a year, I might begin
to get well," he muttered.
Of alone again performing
brain surgery on himself
in a small badly lit
room with no mirror. A room
whose floor ceiling and walls
are all mirrors, what a mess
oh my God-

And still
it stands,
the question
not how to begin
again, but rather

Why?

So we sit there
together
the mountain
and me, Li Po
said, until only the mountain
remains.
-Franz Wright

Antecedent Scenario- Before writing this poem, Franz Wright was probably thinking about new beginnings and why people feel the need to start over again. Maybe he felt like he needed his own fresh start, but questioned why.
The Climax- The climax of this poem seems to be when he says, "Why?" Here he gets to the point: that it isn't about how to begin again, but why we should do it in the first place. It is structurally significant as well; he puts the single worded question by itself for impact.
Tone- The tone of "Beginning Again" was a mixture of exasperation, bitterness, contemplation, and sarcastic. The words "muttered," "brain surgery," "oh my God," and "Why," led me to the conclusion that, in regards to beginning again, Franz Wright's poem had those tones in it.Meaning- This poem is all about how to begin again- to start over. It says that to do so, one must stop talking, look into one's own mind ("brain surgery") in a place without distractions, but with mirrors everywhere to see and criticize oneself. It asks, "What's the point?" Why should we sit there trying to create a new beginning for ourselves as things change around us?

"The Halo That Would Not Light" Poetry Blog.

The Halo That Would Not Light
When, after many years, the raptor beak
Let loose of you,

                         He dropped your tiny body
In the scarab-colored hollow

                         Of a carriage, left you like a finch
Wrapped in its nest of linens wound

With linden leaves in a child's carboard box.

Tonight the wind is hover-

Hunting as the leather seats of swings go back
And forth with no one in them

As certain and invisible as
                         Red scarves silking endlessly

From a magician's hollow hat
                         And the spectacular catastrophe

Of your endless childhood
                                                  Is done.
-Lucie Brock-Broido

     My first observation of this poem is its structure and arrangement of the lines. There are many indentations and spaces that create a certain drama. The spaces put an intenstity in between the sentences and adds to the sharp and somber tone.
     As to the meaning of the poem, I like to go stanza by stanza or, in this case, line by line. To me, the beginning seems to be replacing the idea of the stork that drops off babies with a raptor; this creates already a sad idea. The raptor dropped "you" into the hollow of a carriage as if "you" were wrapped in a nest-like thing of linden leaves like a finch. This example of the helpless bird wrapped up and stuck in a child's cardboard box is a vivid image that helps enhance the tone and main idea. Then, it goes on to describe the swaying of empty swings in the wind and how there are similar to red scarves coming out of a magic hat. These empty swings being "hunted" by the wind adds to the somber and slightly cold tone of the poem. Finally, it says that the "spectacular catastrophe of your endless childhood is done." I'm not exactly sure what that last line means, but I think it has something to do with the end of the magic that goes along with childhood and innocence. It is a very strong ending with the impact of the "is done" at the very bottom right of the poem.
     I'd like to understand how the title relates to the poem, but I can't think of how it does.