Anger wrapped in
Breezes, time
Entangles: a scarf
Snagged in nettles,
If I lift it, tears.
If I leave it,
Deny a need--
Silk cloth, a
Weed-- I am
Uneasy yet free
To leave, not
Forget, leave
And regret a
Scarf only--
Not icon or flag
In hope unfurled--
And anger.
I retreat into
A larger world.
At first i was put off by this poem, because when I was a kid during WW II we kids and our folks had Victory Gardens, and that's how I came to love planting, growing, and harvesting plants: flowers, fruits, vegetables, and eventually psychedelics. So I wondered, what is this anger about? What is the conflict that's going on here? Then after three readings I began to get into the poem itself and the voice, and relate to it as I am now, not as I was then, in 1943, a six year old Victory Gardener.
ReplyDeleteI too am ambivalent about this poem. It does refer to something nature tells us about ourselves --our choices in interacting with our world, even in adversity. Your generation was indeed raised to a good idea --in the face of struggle-- where this generation wants organizing. Opera-logic, so "voice" is a little lofty, ode-like, nearly odious --I gotta look those two words up sometime.
ReplyDeleteyes.
ReplyDelete