10-08-2016, 10:05 AM
For me, the entire poem was beautiful except for the "or" in L4 which reads like filler.
I interpreted it as the writing process. You reach deep within memory to tease out once-strong experiences now fallen into obscurity, what we call 'inspiration'. During this process of remembering, snippets of poems heard before, or dialogues from films, or the random detritus of recent memory try to distract: at first, the distraction is strong, then it becomes
"white noise like sheets over mirrors" (what a phenomenal line). Along the way, the form to hold your poem in - the meta-song, the general cadence, flow, and structure of your poem - comes into your mind, and you take this to hold the milk, or semen, of your most powerful memory. Then the poem's done and you start all over again.
I'm not clear about the Sylvia Plath connection.
I interpreted it as the writing process. You reach deep within memory to tease out once-strong experiences now fallen into obscurity, what we call 'inspiration'. During this process of remembering, snippets of poems heard before, or dialogues from films, or the random detritus of recent memory try to distract: at first, the distraction is strong, then it becomes
"white noise like sheets over mirrors" (what a phenomenal line). Along the way, the form to hold your poem in - the meta-song, the general cadence, flow, and structure of your poem - comes into your mind, and you take this to hold the milk, or semen, of your most powerful memory. Then the poem's done and you start all over again.
I'm not clear about the Sylvia Plath connection.
~ I think I just quoted myself - Achebe