Copperheads

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

hunker down

little cloven hooved

shimmying spring

we'll dance when the last

of grey days

ghasps to sing

 

i'll don you like bracelets

of barbed wire

and string

tie through with the blooms

of the blister and sting

of the thick thistled crown

of a commoer king

 

sit still

sink the sun

in the glow of my ring

that loamy light gilding

where copperheads

cling

[duderonomy]

Shiva,

 

I don't get it. I get parts of it.

 

 

I'm only going by the first verse. I would like to remind you that you have to speak the same language as your audience. If it's too interpersonal, how in the world are the rest of us supposed to understand it?

 

Just my opinion.

[Guest Shiva H. Vishnu]

I'll try to remember to use more english words in subsequent offerings. Thanks.

[redross]

I really liked it

[Guest Suicyde_Alley]

Poetry and Explanation

by Nicholas Gordon poemsforfree.com

 

 

1. Since poetry is a partnership between poet and reader, what the poet meant is not what the poem means.

 

2. The image always means more than the explanation, making any explanation by the poet reductive.

 

3. Explanations by those other than the poet, however, may be enriching because they are not authoritative.

 

4. What, then, is a reader to do when faced with an intriguing passage that seems obscure? First, search her own mind and heart; second, search the minds and hearts of others through reading and conversation; third, treat the explanation of any poet, foolish enough to make one, with the same attention given to that of any informed reader; fourth, always be aware that the fault may be with the poet and not with the reader.

 

5. What, then, is a poet to do, having written a passage that many readers find obscure? First, consider whether the passage is unnecessarily obscure, and, if so, revise it; second, if the passage is richly obscure, have faith in your readers; third, if neither of the first two suggestions works, consider another vocation.

 

6. The only thing a poet should even consider explaining is what he never should have written in the first place.

 

 

 

Alley

[fortunehooks]

I like the material, and I love ms. alley's post. very good stuff.