Author Information
Friend of Light
Folder:
Family & Friends If I could fly with light,
if I could follow the stars' web of power,
one eternity behind another,
and witness drama with no conclusion,
I'd only glimpse the radiance God
shared with me through you.
I have envied your brilliant simplicity,
wisdom drained of arrogance,
as I've scurried through life's maze
spinning the questions you easily answer.
Perhaps it was our common goal of truth
that made me say, here at last, is my sister,
or perhaps it was my unchained spirit,
ranting, singing,
unafraid of its reflection
because I saw it through your eyes
in those days when we lived on conversation
till I believed I was speaking with your mouth,
when ideas wore the halos of Renaissance saints
and we crowned each other's enlightenment like
Byzantine icons.
That day you made me ride that horse,
leave my purse and my makeup and
my inhibitions in the car
and trust that creature with no sense of style,
my heart called out, dear Lord! So this is
what angels and birds take for granted,
so this is the world outside myself!
I could have ridden under countless shades
of sky till the sea corralled me,
my born-again hair spraying from my head,
my heart rioting in its prison of ribs . . .
I never thanked you for that day.
I never thanked you for inviting me
into your freedom,
for teaching me about art and horses and
the splendor of ordinary things
and that wealth is something we create with
our souls and that knowledge can be gentle
and that friendship is water, one day living
in a body, another in the sky, but living always.
by Patricia Joan Jones
This poem, like a binary star
This poem, like a binary star system, has two centers of gravity---the first stanza, and the last. Like Wallace Stevens poems, all of Patricia's that I have seen (and I keep a close watch) have a center of gravity. And like Stevens, she moves the centers around between her several poems. (Note to grad student looking for a subject for your dissertation: make an xy graph like in analytical geometry, one of the axes represented the number of lines in each center, and the other representing those lines' position in the poem. It will be interesting to see if she has a particular favorite position, or how many poems are represented by each positions.) But, unlike Stevens, more than one of her poems are binary star systems---deploying to centers of gravity.
Perhaps, too, the simile of a sonata might be appropriate here. Like the first movement of a classical sonata, there is a statement of a theme, and then a reply which becomes another theme. The first and last stanzas work together in that way. The first stanza states a question, or a need, that---I suspect---might have inspired the most ancient poetry. The last stanza states the primary purpose for which all poetry exists: the thank you to the Cosmos which we inhabit and which (I believe we are alone here) we are meant to explain and explicate to itself, and beyond the Cosmos, a thank you to the Cosmos-Maker.
(On a personal note, I am grateful, as an Orthodox Christian, for the poem's mention of icons.)
J-Called
I can't tell you how much I
I can't tell you how much I enjoy your intricate interpretations of my work, and especially this one I gave as a gift to my best friend years ago. It means so much that you took the time to analyze it in such depth and appreciate it fully, because the friendship ended a few years back and left me feeling ambivalent about this poem.
After I saw a real Russian icon that was smuggled out of the Soviet Union at a time when Churches were being raided, I felt I had seen something truly holy; it was so beautiful, so enduring. I was offering my friend the highest praise in that line, so I'm thrilled that you recognized the significance of that word choice.
I'm always delighted when you pinpoint the stanzas that I wanted to function as a crescendo. My feelings (just a sense) dictates the position. I love it when the center turns out to actually be the center, and it happens to be a few words as one stanza, but it doesn't usually work out that way. I just go with what I "hear" in my head.
Thank you again for your deeply meaningful and amazing review. It makes all the difference.
NICE PIECE
I LIKE THIS POEM AND ONCE AGAIN YOU ARE VERY DESCRIPTIVE. YOUR WORDS PAINT SUCH A VIVID PICTURE.