Two poems, both called "Light" -- one in his new book, one in his collected:
The first one, he observes himself:
"Always in the dream I seemed conscious of myself having the dream even as I dreamed it."
and knowing that nightmare is part of dream's definition -- and a stream of consciousness flood of questions and ruminations. Good ones to ask.
-- what causes the dream -- and what are the repercussions of being aware, involved, caught in all the aspects of dream and nightmare?
The real nightmare is having no power over the consciousness...
Sometimes, when I arrive in dream here, when I arrive nearly overwhelmed with uncertainly here,
I feel a compulsion to renounce what so confounds me, to abdicate, surrender, but to what?
I don’t even know if my despair might not be another deception the devious dream is proposing.
This is negative capability applied to dreams. Shades of the imagination.
the second one, which starts with a moment just after a rainstorm which makes him think of Dante the Blissful Blessed, and then a recollection of being in a cave of bats. The threads work well, especially with Dante interjected : Imagine, you are dead, and when you see a "shade" you do not say, hello So and So,
but hello, "the life of So and So" -- and that life is so thoroughly over. The bat doesn't know about this. You can know it for him.
Light -- enlightened; light vs. dark; light vs. heavy; light -- with the Blessed or with the weight only of ghost, vs. the heavy earthdrawn life. Magical poem.
We also read Wait... see my notes under "Thanksgiving" although Wait is filled with violent images about time and her ravages. Kathy reminded of Kunitz and the long boat -- as if I didn't want to stay forever...
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful poems. So much more on the surface than meets the eye.
To read and enjoy, discuss, read, enjoy, discuss.
Read aloud others.
Wood :
The girl I didn't love, then because she was going to leave me, loved...
what an opening line -- and then from wood to steel --
how easily we personalize, project,
and years later, revisiting a memory from so long ago, bring our retroactive experience to the retelling of the story. He brings us back to the Now.
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