on 14/9/05 8:54 PM, judy prince at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> A necessary poem, Max---beyond the necessary "sorting out" that says they
> are just like us, normal. You've moved us further, p'raps with the sister's
> refrain "I knew it," and with your hyper-normalizing, so that we can say
> they were just like us bcuz that is the point, isn't it?
>
> Just like us. We stifle anger, bury resentments, soldier on, stay in
> control, play those roles. The happy working Mom, a good nurse who heals;
> the children who've learned to be good, to duck and hide from Mom's moods;
> the husband, distracted by his distraught responses to a wife's impossible
> needs, who cannot be strong bcuz he's become a fragment; the dog the only
> creature who can protect the others, if only they hadn't spun out of all
> protection zones, finally.
>
> Well, Max, you see the power you've brought in this reader's response, and I
> thank you for it, for the compassionate warning.
>
> Judy
Ah Judy , you're a creative reader!
It is wonderful to read what you see in my attempt!
If only I had the gift to get other readers to come up with such
responses...
I actually showed the piece to two out of three of my current undergraduate
poetry-writing classes - not the third because one young woman in it had
showed me her slashed wrist the other morning - a first for me...
The conversation prompted by my poem confirmed my feeling that it was
written out of much confusion, and also out of complicity in the
exploitation by the media of private tragedies.
My wife the speech therapist sees a boy from the same school, who told her
this week he was sad at losing his good friend.
Marilyn feels young children are often insulated from the shock of death
coming so close, whereas the boy's mother was still distraught ('how could a
mother...?' etc).
Perhaps it has to do with an inability to imagine madness taking over a
person.
My own range has yet to reach that far, I know.
Max
Thanks Patrick for your response also.
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