Sue,

Bravo!!!!!!!!!!!! I normally accuse myself of being too clear. Now I am
joining the ranks of the fashionably open-ended, even though I wrote the
poem before I knew that such a fashion existed. At that time I was
interested in having analogous domains of meaning rather than one specific
meaning. The domains are very similar to those in the previous poem
"Metamorphosis" (and you were justified in what you took from it). At the
most primitive level it is literally a time when our ancestors moved onto
the enlarging grassy plains of the prolonged dry spell of 2-3 million years
ago.
Then it represents the first contact of isolated groups with the modern
(open and unpredictable) world. I had the privilege to witness that in Papua
New Guinea. Such people hear about Christianity, WW2, the atom bomb, the
existence of other races and other countries for the first time. They get it
all in an overwhelming bolus. Suddenly the world is bigger and more
terrifying than they had ever guessed. Then it represents the gradual change
in world view which such a transition brings about. I cannot begin to
describe the difference in thinking or how excited I was to try to
reconstruct the world that such isolated groups had come from. Animism is
not enough to describe it. Imagine a world in which even the trees are
conscious, in which everything has personal significance. How wild that Eden
 I know to my cost. Then the poem represents the decay of religion elsewhere
and the adoption of existential
modes of thought. We have come a long way since the Enlightenment. Ever
doubt it and there is a wonderful book, "The Seventeenth Century and its
Symobols" by Basil Willey. Even for me this is accompanied by a feeling of
nostalgia.
Then it represents individual development, in its recapitulation of cultural
development. The world of the child is also animistic and personal , subject
to the sureties of traditional beliefs. The adolescent begins to question
everything and to make choices that are increasingly subject to the
uncertainties of adulthood.

Even in the secondary world of the intellect and
the imagination thought is not infinite (at least human thought doesn't seem
to be) and a few big themes emerge. I was just attempting to allude to a
theme, without any insistence on the domains that contribute to it. Wish I
were more of as poet. I feel like I have a symphony in my head and all I've
got to play it is a tin whistle.

Thanks for the crit and keep it coming.


Colin




----- Original Message -----
From: "Sue Scalf" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2003 2:47 AM
Subject: Re: newsub/forest


> The language is perfect, the rhythm, and the images are sharp and draw me
in.
>  However, if there is a meaning or a theme here I just can't make it out.
> The fault may be mine.  Sue
>
>