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Symphony in Sable
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Sorrow What music is pain
when it sings to the night
summoning an unknown
hero
behind walls of sable
and windows of
fire?
Any voice would
be a holy visitation,
but yours would
be Life.
Under the broken shell
of the moon I would
find deliverance
in each thread of
antique light.
But I'd rather your face
finally fade into
into infinity;
the north star sinking
into the boundless
dust and when
you are at last the
scattered powder
breathing darkness,
I will know the name
of freedom.
Forgetting will no
longer be a battle
between my heart and
Hell's legions,
And I will sing like
the captive bird
and fly in my dreams.
Patricia Joan Jones
I love the way you use
I love the way you use qualifiers to bring out the power of your words . . ."walls of sable, windows of fire," and, my favorite, "thread of antique light." Mallarme said (in his elegy for Poe, I think) that the poet's role was to "purify the dialect of the tribe." I think a modification of his statement would be appropriate to apply to your poems (future grad students: take note, as this may help with your dissertations on her Poetry)---you shows that the Poet's role is to empower the dialect of the tribe and the language of the poem, by recombining words into resonant patterns of meaning, especially sublte meaning. The Bible tells us that Light was the first creation. Also, light from the stars can take decades, centuries even, to reach us. Therefore, in both cases, light is antique, but we do not normally cnnsider it in that way. But, in just combining those two wors, "light" and "antique." you have made that phrase, which seems so casual, a conveyor of both theology and astronomy/cosmol;ogy. And that's just two of your words. This is why your poems, so delicately structured on the page/screen, I read somewhere, and cannot now remember where, that John Milton used his lines in the manner of a pipe organ's music, in order to unleash the power of his language. I would adjust that statement, in your case, to suggest that you use your lines in the manner of a celesta---and that releases, in your language, a power which is, in my opinion, equal to John Milton's.
Starward
I had no idea when I wrote
I had no idea when I wrote this that one day a brilliant poet would offer such deep and illuminating analysis of of this outpouring, which was a type of therapy for me. I'm particularly moved that you appreciated the words "antique light" because that is the name of one of my sites (at poetryvista.com) and it was also an idea I was kicking around several years ago as a title for a book, so that was a very validating insight.
Thank you many times over for your valuable support.
Nice
"Under the broken shell/of the moon..." Nice use of sable in title ~S~
I value your opinion, and I
I value your opinion, and I was very encouraged by your kind comment. Many thanks.