Post by bluebird on Jan 14, 2019 18:07:33 GMT -5
This was written before I read Doty's "Souls On Ice"
After the last stanza I though of angels. Tracked back to first place I stopped in the poem: "like seams of lead" that made me think of
stained glass church windows. Next line, re Tiffany Window confirmed that image. So on second reading of the poem I looked for other
possible religious currents. "Parallel rows made me think of church pews."
The rift on iridescence so beautifully done: abalone, soap bubbles, spheres, sun on gasoline this last image has a darkness to it that
for me connected back to "barred" and "black bands that divide) and these darker images reminded me of prisoners in jail or maybe
even cloistered nuns or brothers.
Then the poem returns to "splendor" and one that is the exact expression of "one soul". I got stopped by the punctuation and felt
it made sense to me only as:
Splendor, and splendor
Not a one in anyway
Distinguished from the other---
not sure why Doty punctuated it the way he did.
As I thought of the poet stopping to look at rows of mackerel...each one...I thought of the childhood chant of "one potato, two potato,
three potato, more....a game chant for "choosing" so then I thought maybe the poet is subtly pointing out that there is no choice of
one over the other as "more" splendid. They are all "one soul."
I think again of angels since heaven's template is mentions...how angels are divided into hierarchies but clearly this isn't where the poet
is going since next is the image of "mackerel essence" that is luminous as something "made" i.e. created/crafted and that practice has
perfected it. Was jeweler's (the possesive) a typo? I decided not to get bogged down in details.
In the tenth stanza Doty moves from description and comparison to a question: "Suppose we could iridesce" and this goes on in a long
sentence that that poses being lost as a separate self in the "universe of shimmer" (gorgeous phrase) and asks (I think) would you want
to be lost in this shimmer OR be your "unduplicatable" self...a one time only YOU et "doomed to be lost?" I paused here to think about
which: being part of one shimmer or being a single, unique soul doomed to be lost I would prefer. I think again of the plurality or host
of angels....each one so much like the other....
For me the 10th through 13th stanzas pose the question the poem seems to be addressing in its meditation...things kind of speed up
(almost like a school of mackerel swirling around alive in water). This image is reinforced by words like: flashing, bolting, heedless...
all, all for all.... and here, for me, the poem opens out, expands (like the heavens and oceans) into acres of brilliant classrooms (so delightful
a reminder that he is, after all, talking about a school of FISH and then I remember that fish is a symbol of Christianity and I think about
the loaves and fishes miracle of Christ having endless supply of them...and the endless supply of stars and planets and space that swirl
all around us...how we (and our planet) are such a tiny speck among many specks and even how internally we are atoms and then I
think of the light inside a diamond that reflects this internal capacity to shine...
The line "in wich no verb is singular" puzzles but perhaps could mean that all actions made by a many, i.e. a school of fish require the
action to be considered as a plural....in another way of looking at it, if ALL is ONE then every action requires only a singular verb as in
"I am who am" .... I move on after thinking about this.
The final stanza describes the poet's observation that this display of Mackerel seems happy though frozen together...having no individual
characteristics.
The last line of the poem, "which is the price of gleaming." for me is not so much an end of the poem so much as speculation that requires
further though...after all, the poet say "they seem happy.
I am left to wonder if angels are happy. Apparently as least one of them was not...and this is the evil in the gleam...in Lucifer's case it
is envy.
I love this poem; the flow of it, the word choices, the meditative quality and most of all the space the poem creates for the reader to
be in the poem too. Perhaps one of the reasons it is paired with "Pied Beauty" is that it has (for me anyway) spiritual or even religious
tones.
After the last stanza I though of angels. Tracked back to first place I stopped in the poem: "like seams of lead" that made me think of
stained glass church windows. Next line, re Tiffany Window confirmed that image. So on second reading of the poem I looked for other
possible religious currents. "Parallel rows made me think of church pews."
The rift on iridescence so beautifully done: abalone, soap bubbles, spheres, sun on gasoline this last image has a darkness to it that
for me connected back to "barred" and "black bands that divide) and these darker images reminded me of prisoners in jail or maybe
even cloistered nuns or brothers.
Then the poem returns to "splendor" and one that is the exact expression of "one soul". I got stopped by the punctuation and felt
it made sense to me only as:
Splendor, and splendor
Not a one in anyway
Distinguished from the other---
not sure why Doty punctuated it the way he did.
As I thought of the poet stopping to look at rows of mackerel...each one...I thought of the childhood chant of "one potato, two potato,
three potato, more....a game chant for "choosing" so then I thought maybe the poet is subtly pointing out that there is no choice of
one over the other as "more" splendid. They are all "one soul."
I think again of angels since heaven's template is mentions...how angels are divided into hierarchies but clearly this isn't where the poet
is going since next is the image of "mackerel essence" that is luminous as something "made" i.e. created/crafted and that practice has
perfected it. Was jeweler's (the possesive) a typo? I decided not to get bogged down in details.
In the tenth stanza Doty moves from description and comparison to a question: "Suppose we could iridesce" and this goes on in a long
sentence that that poses being lost as a separate self in the "universe of shimmer" (gorgeous phrase) and asks (I think) would you want
to be lost in this shimmer OR be your "unduplicatable" self...a one time only YOU et "doomed to be lost?" I paused here to think about
which: being part of one shimmer or being a single, unique soul doomed to be lost I would prefer. I think again of the plurality or host
of angels....each one so much like the other....
For me the 10th through 13th stanzas pose the question the poem seems to be addressing in its meditation...things kind of speed up
(almost like a school of mackerel swirling around alive in water). This image is reinforced by words like: flashing, bolting, heedless...
all, all for all.... and here, for me, the poem opens out, expands (like the heavens and oceans) into acres of brilliant classrooms (so delightful
a reminder that he is, after all, talking about a school of FISH and then I remember that fish is a symbol of Christianity and I think about
the loaves and fishes miracle of Christ having endless supply of them...and the endless supply of stars and planets and space that swirl
all around us...how we (and our planet) are such a tiny speck among many specks and even how internally we are atoms and then I
think of the light inside a diamond that reflects this internal capacity to shine...
The line "in wich no verb is singular" puzzles but perhaps could mean that all actions made by a many, i.e. a school of fish require the
action to be considered as a plural....in another way of looking at it, if ALL is ONE then every action requires only a singular verb as in
"I am who am" .... I move on after thinking about this.
The final stanza describes the poet's observation that this display of Mackerel seems happy though frozen together...having no individual
characteristics.
The last line of the poem, "which is the price of gleaming." for me is not so much an end of the poem so much as speculation that requires
further though...after all, the poet say "they seem happy.
I am left to wonder if angels are happy. Apparently as least one of them was not...and this is the evil in the gleam...in Lucifer's case it
is envy.
I love this poem; the flow of it, the word choices, the meditative quality and most of all the space the poem creates for the reader to
be in the poem too. Perhaps one of the reasons it is paired with "Pied Beauty" is that it has (for me anyway) spiritual or even religious
tones.
