5/19/11

Welcome || Stephen Dunn

if you believe nothing is always what's left
after a while, as I did,
If you believe you have this collection
of ungiven gifts, as I do (right here
behind the silence and the averted eyes)
If you believe an afternoon can collapse
into strange privacies-
how in your backyard, for example,
the shyness of flowers can be suddenly
overwhelming, and in the distance
the clear goddamn of thunder
personal, like a voice,
If you believe there's no correct response
to death, as I do; that even in grief
(where I've sat making plans)
there are small corners of joy
If your body sometimes is a light switch
in a house of insomniacs
If you can feel yourself straining
to be yourself every waking minute
If, as I am, you are almost smiling . . .


--


The first two lines brought me back to those occurent ideas on life; how, in a Schopenhauer sense, nothing we ever do in this life matters. It all comes back to the beginning and no one will eve remember we existed. The ungiven gifts may, for a sentimentalist, recall the regrets one has committed. It could be abstract as well, as love. It is one that a lot has as never received by their true owner.


strange privacies symbolizes the human element. When we are in a loop and our conscious states falls asleep. Sometimes, out of boredom, we let ourselves do whatever it is we want minus the consent of society, or any other curious eye. in other words we become unconscious of the self an disregard what others, or what our conscience might ask us to do. These moments becomes strange in an objective view, but the drive that pushes one to act on it is natural.


The mentions about flower and thunder describes how a single moment of reflection can change a point of view in life. We can never say we can commit to an emotion and declare what we feel can never change. It is impossible, and a torture to protect that faith.


If you believe there's no correct response
to death, as I do; that even in grief
(where I've sat making plans)
there are small corners of joy
If your body sometimes is a light switch
in a house of insomniacs
^ The imagery and Feeling attach with them is so liberating. Image being that lightswitch that controls the well-being of insomniacs, of sick people. One flick of a switch, and they can finally sleep. Or vice versa.


The poem is clearly about life and reflection, but behind the outer layer may also show the complexity of the human emotion: how they are random and, even though they can take a life of their own, they can also be manipulate and controlled. Throughout the poem, it has a monotonous narration and tone (hence, the repetition of if) and the end clarifies the speaker smiling; being happy. And that anyone who could relate to the poem. Whether reading it with fear, shame, disgust, sadness, etc all throughout, that one must reflect and think that such truths about our being is necessary, and we must accept it.

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