A secret society of poets? May 5, 2013 (date may not be accurate)

 

 


I'm not sure I'll ever get to the bottom of this poem; but a straight up analysis might help make it less personal.

The title itself implies duality in meaning or maybe more as if writing a letter addressed to another writer or in another meaning to explain what she does as a writer in describing the intimate details of her life.

The text supports both themes: a letter to a scribe and the art of wordsmithing.

There was something aloof, even smug in the speaker's tone although there is also an undertone of resentment, a bitterness inspired by longstanding hurt.

The poem clearly is one scribe speaking to another about the use of words that “we” do to create a world that makes sense of an existence others sees as normal.

Early on in the poem, she implies a kind of congeniality which separates “us poets” from the normal world.

She is elevating not only herself but the person to whom she is writing to a special status, a Charmin of the tribe of humanity assigned to keep a lid on what is basically an insane world.

It is a noble endeavor worthy of fighting for or worth wording.

Most people lack the words by which he means talent and they do not have the vision since to be as the position to describe things accurately.

Here at the poem diverges from “we” to the word “I” as she makes clear that she must forge on with words that fail as she is confronted by and at the same time thankful for the inability to describe the persistent absurdity that is her life.

The poem is all about her and her attempting to use her talent as a writer to make sense of the world while at the same time making her living as a writer.

Here we may have a bit of a time warp and perhaps an echo back to the daily beat routine she engaged in while still at her office since her current duties require far less of the grunt work she engaged in when with us.

But she still sees herself as a fighter, Fighting always for that living and become the rock for those too afraid or to underpaid “as I”.

By rock she seems to mean the foundation, or perhaps loyal resistance as if others see her as an example to follow.

Her the poem makes its dramatic and negative, turn taking aim at her critics who apparently try to hold her back “Thank you, (whoever I need to be thankful for )for the opportunity to be all that you hope I wasn't.”

The change from “I” to “you” is extremely significant since she is clearly talking directly to her arch enemy, another scribe, blaming him for holding her back, and yet, she claims to have succeeded anyway, despite him, maybe even because of his opposition.

There is no definitive evidence in the poem to indicate I am the subject of the poem. She makes it clear from the title she is writing to another writer, even admitting that she and this writer we are part of a special clan people whose role it is to make sense of a world other people claim as normal.

This goes a long way to verifying my suspicion earlier that we may have been communicating all along, although if this poem is to be believe, in an extremely negative way.

She goes on to talk about how this task of writing sometimes frustrates her especially when she must also use the same talents to make a living but her determination to forge on makes her an example to others and concludes in a definite sarcastical note, taking aim again at the other writer who she believes tried to hold her back and she succeeded anyway.

Her satirical thank you reverberating like a war cry and stirs up some of the same tone of defiance as one of her recent poems about her rising from ashes of defeat.

But as it turns out, this is only the beginning of a new series of poems, even more revealing than some she posted and took down in the past, such as trickling up, or the more ambiguous admissions she made in her change of priority poem. But since I am writing this a week or two after she posted this poem, I’ve had the chance to look ahead. But first, I want to look back at other poems prior to this I may have mistakenly interpreted. Then, we’ll get to a poem she posted very recently that even shocked me.


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