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sure, we like literature. but we also like poetry. and music. and dance. and art. and photography. we like it all, and here we can talk about it all. here, (almost) anything goes.

2.19.2009

A Response to SRS Post

I Would Like to Describe
by Zbigniew Herbert 

I would like to describe the simplest emotion
joy or sadness
but not as others do
reaching for shafts of rain or sun

I would like to describe a light
which is being born in me
but I know it does not resemble
any star
for it is not so bright
not so pure
and is uncertain

I would like to describe courage
without dragging behind me a dusty lion
and also anxiety
without shaking a glass full of water

to put it another way
I would give all metaphors
in return for one word
drawn out of my breast like a rib
for one word
contained within the boundaries
of my skin

but apparently this is not possible

and just to say - I love
I run around like mad
picking up handfuls of birds
and my tenderness
which after all is not made of water
asks the water for a face
and anger
different from fire
borrows from it
a loquacious tongue

so is blurred
so is blurred
in me
what white-haired gentlemen
separated once and for all
and said
this is the subject
and this is the object

we fall asleep
with one hand under our head
and with the other in a mound of planets

our feet abandon us
and taste the earth
with their tiny roots
which next morning
we tear out painfully
Posted by Alex at 11:51 PM

3 comments:

Scot said...

Wonderful poem. And it leaves me conflicted.

On one hand, I wish I'd written it.

On the other, I see some of the problems brought up in my mind by the Vorticist Manifesto. The poem seems to be lamenting cliche---a complaint that is both fashionable AND valid.

But I think it's an easy posture to take. More complicatively, cliches have a valid use. The quick, consistent meaning they represent makes up the tissue of our language interactions. Without cliche, we would be constantly reinventing our language wheels. And I dunno, maybe that would be a good thing...?

Also, the poem doesn't seem to acknowledge that Person A's cliche is Person B's innovation. The reason it's a cliche to Person B is b/c Person B has heard it before. So, to reduce the number of cliches that offend, maybe we should reduce our output? Could we be more conscious of the language-environment? Language-green? Only say what really needs to be said? (Whatever that is....) Then when Person A explores something innovative, we can see it from Person A's standpoint of sincere expression.

So...I should shuttup now.

February 20, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Alex said...

I do not have time right now to go into it, but I'd like to say I strongly disagree with this: "Also, the poem doesn't seem to acknowledge that Person A's cliche is Person B's innovation. The reason it's a cliche to Person B is b/c Person B has heard it before. So, to reduce the number of cliches that offend, maybe we should reduce our output? Could we be more conscious of the language-environment? Language-green? Only say what really needs to be said? (Whatever that is....) Then when Person A explores something innovative, we can see it from Person A's standpoint of sincere expression."

February 20, 2009 at 6:00 PM
expatriate said...

1) Should we make the distinction between language use in poetry and language use in everyday conversation? There's certainly overlap, but don't we have something called poetry so we can put language to a somewhat different use?

2) How responsible is each poet to what's been said before? What would T.S. Eliot say? Is inadvertent cliche use a sign of the poet's irresponsibility for not knowing the tradition?

3) Where does William Matthews fit into all this? He was very good at taking a cliche and reversing it or finding new/fresh meaning in it.

4) Isn't new meaning always and everywhere the point (to speak dogmatically, as if I were manifesto-ing)? At least when it comes to poetry.

February 23, 2009 at 2:22 PM

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