Oh, there are some mighty fine turns of phrase here - I can see how someone might snip one up and gild it over a visual snapshot of their feels. I especially like 'rebellion sits well / on you' etc. and 'your eyes are cities / but the wreckages of them'.
I want to be seduced by the language of the second poem, but for such an explicitly visual poem the images it suggests are curiously out of focus for me. (Is the 'you' of 'your body' lying on the kitchen table? slumped in a chair? why are the expressions of sadness suggestive of human habitation but that of happiness opaque, almost unknowable / unaccessible in its endlessness?) I wonder the body being so explored is naked; there's a sense of vulnerability, self-protectiveness. (And how innocent is the one touching so eagerly even before the sun has come up past the windowsill?) This poem, like the ocean smile, gives a suggestion of depths that aren't necessary intended to be accessible to other siders.
I like the pairing of these two poems together; the former oriented toward the beloved away (for revolution, yes?), the latter toward a person who seems very much a veteran of modern war, modern battles so named.
Thank you for sharing these! I cannot help being reminded of the fragment 16 Saphho translation we'll be exploring next week - is it one you've encountered before?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2013-09-13 02:37 am (UTC)I want to be seduced by the language of the second poem, but for such an explicitly visual poem the images it suggests are curiously out of focus for me. (Is the 'you' of 'your body' lying on the kitchen table? slumped in a chair? why are the expressions of sadness suggestive of human habitation but that of happiness opaque, almost unknowable / unaccessible in its endlessness?) I wonder the body being so explored is naked; there's a sense of vulnerability, self-protectiveness. (And how innocent is the one touching so eagerly even before the sun has come up past the windowsill?) This poem, like the ocean smile, gives a suggestion of depths that aren't necessary intended to be accessible to other siders.
I like the pairing of these two poems together; the former oriented toward the beloved away (for revolution, yes?), the latter toward a person who seems very much a veteran of modern war, modern battles so named.
Thank you for sharing these! I cannot help being reminded of the fragment 16 Saphho translation we'll be exploring next week - is it one you've encountered before?