Funny enough, I'm working: Funny enough, I'm working with one of my students on the dismantling and relocating of the Senaca in 18th and 19th century New York State. One piece of poetry we've looked at over the course of this series of lessons and discussions was Longfellow's "Song of Hiawatha", as well as a painting inspired by it (and gifted to H.W.L.) and critiques of the poem series - including analysis of his prejudiced perceptions.
What a wonderful person she: What a wonderful person she must have been, to be remembered with such fond words, and with your sharing, introduced to us and be allowed in her rememberance. As always, a beautiful write, thank you for sharing.
I was about to turn in for: I was about to turn in for the night, but then this poem appeared, and I cannot close the day without immediately commenting on this wonderful entry added to the grandeur of the poems Patricia has already posted here.
First, look at the first metaphor presented, in the second line. "Little exhales of light": that is verbal artistry that should make every poet on this site envious. The centerpiece of the poem is in the stanza that begins "and we'd finally/know." She closes the poem with another two magnificent metaphors---the surrogate stars and the signposts.
Reading this poem, I realized something I have never thought of before: when we look at the night sky, the stars we see are tiny points of twinkling light. We do not see the massive, incandescent sphere in which the pressure of gravity and the pressure of fusion, although opposites, are kept in perfect equilibrium. We see what we were intended to see---those small points of light. And we see the same correspondence in summer and early autumn with the fireflies. This correspondence was embedded in the creation of the Cosmos and the creation of Earth by the God Who is Love, and a the verbal skill and spiritual acumen of this magnificent Poet, Patricia, reminds us of this fact. One of the functions of Poetry is to point out things that, in the ordinary course of daily living, we may not notice, or retain, or correctly interpret. To my mind, Vergil established this tradition with his attention to the way the Cosmos, or Nature, as settings, are impacted by and impact the lives of shepherds, farmers, and warrior; with the tacit reminder that the task of Poets is to present these aspects. Patricia writes from the Vergilian perspective. Just as Vergil did not need to imitate Homer's or Hesiod's length poems to achieve effectiveness, Patricia need not imitate Vergil's. Quality, rather than quantity, informs and vivifies the Vergilian perspective, and Patricia achieves that . . . each and every time.
Thank you, sir. Thank you, Starward, as well. : I appreciate your comments and honesty. (I apologize, but I'd rather
address both of you in one comment box since my reply button is missing in the other comment section/box for some reason, a possible technical problem).
Yes, Starward. Arigatou! (I use Japanese sometimes out of habit due to my work environment and while I also study some of the Japanese ways in this respect). You got the selfsame idea.. since I do study linguistics in the general sense (informally). (I have tried hard to come up with this particular one as I have been reading about prose poems until the thought of creating a poem out of the blue ensued and in relation to other subfields of Linguistics..encompassing many technical terms in the "semantic field"..including how in the Anglophone world distinguish between hypernyms and hyponyms, etc.) Your commentary is profoundly exact as it was my intention for this poem (with the help of the hashtags..to also help me in discovering linguistical/semantical subject matter. More so.) Such prowess, especially upon quoting one of the renowned bards in Poetry, and its literariness have always been well-received..and especially the honest criticisms that, I thought, subsequently could pique interest among language learners like me (concerning cultural variances viz. of a vernacular, lexicology, linguistic histories and whatnot). Being an immigrant could be a challenge, because of the language barriers that affect complex situations. And, thus, I am humbled whenever you have graced my comment section and for viewing some of my works. (They are in many different forms of linguistic expression, yes. But by such an acuity, we now know the primary reason of this poem, if not its sheer essence.) Bye for now.
a powerful piece about what: a powerful piece about what the lack of sleep can do. you captured very well the yearning of a soul for peace often not found in the night
I really admire this poem. : I really admire this poem. The great American Poet, Wallace Stevens, said that a poem should resist the reader's intelligence, and this one does so---and that is a good thing. This poem is talking about some kind of mysterious process, but it does not reveal the process at all. There is only the evocative tone that lets the reader know that there is more here than meets the eye, but that more is not disclosed. Like I said, I really admire this one.
Sometimes one wonders if it: Sometimes one wonders if it is a kind of verbal starvation or articulative constraint. But either way, it makes for good exercise in literary expression. Wordweaving is a lifelong process of experimentation and learning. Thank you so much patriciajj, for your most welcome visit and review.
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