Askew

[popeye]

Sometimes I tilt my head to the side
and cross-eyed, try to imagine your view
through that close woven canvas you wear
as your gray-shadowed sleeve

I can’t find the itch that straddles my back,
though I seek it with your blank stare
and scratch with the fangs that ride
upon your tepid breath

I know the blood has been freed from my skin
by the footprints you leave with my shoes
as you waltz carefree into the cave
to drink from the Lethe once more

I stand before the mirror and you, knives sheathed,
try to suture my skin to my bloodied clothes,
not realising that it is not wholeness I desire,
but fragmented honesty

Sometimes I wonder if I’d be happier like this,
with my eyes pleasantly scaled and dark
and no questing blades to score my flesh
with lines not parallel like yours

but I don’t think I can breathe
underground

I've much enjoyed this Leanne, like a painting unexplained I keep coming back to it and find new meanings, critique is way out of my reach, suffice to say like the visual artist the poet need offer no explanation, and keeping Billy Collins in mind, confessions and torture are a no, no, though how to critique without one appears very difficult to me. Cheers and thanks for the read!

PS I feel that the demon lies in the poetry itself, perhaps finding glimmers of light that lead to a fuller understanding of the muse which seems to just stay out of reach.'that close woven canvas you wear as your gray-shadowed sleeve' might refer to the printed page.

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"As to giving life advice - who does that?" (an answer to this is still germane to the poem, as a point of clarification and understanding, n'est-ce pas?)

Oh, on some of the other poetry sites there are all kinds of caretakers. People read what is written as being autobiographical and current, and express concern if something in the poem implies that the person is in some sort of danger, is experiencing difficult times, is close to dying, or killing themselves. It is also not uncommon because many non-poets use these poetry sites as kind of a public confessional to illicit responses of pity (what they call support). Kind of like when someone says, "you are not being very supportive", when what they really mean is, "your not telling me what I want to hear.") The bottom line, besides that unpleasant feeling that one gets from voyeurs under the guise of helping and concern, is a whole lot of drama, and very little poetry.
Although I chaff somewhat at the restriction put on some of the forums on this web site, it is far preferable than the total non-focus on poetry, and complete focus on game playing and drama that occurs on other sites, especially the larger ones.

"I am very interested in why a poet would not wish to clarify something in a poem."
There is a difference between clarifying a point, and giving the meaning of the poem, or detail the mental and psychological mechanisms that were operative while the poem was being created. Although one has to be complicit in making oneself that vulnerable, just the fact that they are trying to probe in such an intimate part of your life feels like a violation. To me it feels like they are trying to get to the muse within and suck it out. It is probably not that, but it often feels that way. Any poet knows, to some degree, even if it is unconscious, about the function of inspiration in creating something. Such questions related to inspiration feel violating, probably for two reasons: although poets may handle and use inspiration, they do not understand it (nor wish to jeopardize it by talking about it), nor have a rational way to describe it, and inspiration is often tied to very personal and intimate parts of ourselves we do not wish to reveal.
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If those answers vary to far from the topic I apologize. I suspect they might be, although they seem germane to me, they are less about function and mechanism, and more about the meaning or an explanation of the poem, and thus it becomes a matter of being an apologist, rather than that of a critic.

Should someone wish to clarify that distinction further, I would welcome it.

Dale

Thanks for the offer Dale and I tried to do that in my comment to Leanne, I would appreciate any comment or advice you may have on that, cheers