for "gladly" read " gently"
----- Original Message -----
From: "Arthur Seeley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 3:20 PM
Subject: Re: New sub: Almost Invisible
> There are a couple of things I would like to say about this poem,
Christina.
> Firstly I admire the emtional integrity that you sustain without lapsing
> into sentimentality. I could not do it or rather I could not trust myself
to
> attempt to come near to trying to do it. I do not know when the time is
> right to write this sort of piece, Dylan did it with " Do not go
> gladly....." , you have done it. I could not.
> Secondly the poetry is so precise. the metaphor so wonderfully chosen.. I
> hear " father" two ways. One as your name for him, now I am sure you have
a
> pet name for him, something less formal than father but you have chosen
the
> formal appellation, which first elevates him to his proper place but then,
> and second, I hear it as " farther" and the opening line moves to a higher
> plane, almost a prayer-like imploring, equivalent to " Do not go
> gladly....",of course then both things are working together and this gives
> the line so much depth and pathos.
> " The low light" is ominous and hints at close of day, year, life, a
> resolution and then 'catching', with its line-break ( this to me is the
> point and proper use of line-breaks), takes on its double meaning, meaning
> at once" infectious", infecting you with despondency and gloom and then "
> illuminating", lighting the way forward and back, the metaphor leads us to
> the unbroken thread of our humanity, the father, himself begotten,
begetting
> the daughter and so on, unbroken. The metaphor closes on the blades of
grass
> back behind each other into the dimness of our origins. See, I have taken
a
> hundred words to unravel what you wove in twenty and that is the power and
> wonder of poetry and to be admired.
> Thank you, Arthur.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Christina Fletcher" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 9:38 AM
> Subject: New sub: Almost Invisible
>
>
> > Amost Invisible
> >
> > Walk with me, father:
> > the low light is catching
> > miles of unbroken silk
> > spun from blade to blade of grass.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > christina fletcher
> >
> >
>
>
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