The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poem Thread, 9/20/07

[BlueIris]

"If the Cardinals Were Like Us"

Before I’m awake, the dreamlike
Courtesy could happen in fact—

The male places the sunflower seed
In his mate's bill.

I've seen it other mornings.
He'd seed a blush-red cloth, ruined

On a twig, if it were all
He had, my husband told me once...

When he does not come home,
I hope to wake to a plush bird,

A chant of flattery. I like it because
We do not have the vocabulary,

My daughter and I, to discuss
What's happened: the new day's

So bright you cannot see the porchlight on.


To come back to us, he rises
And his lover's cat

Claws up the bedstead to her side.
I find my bedtime book unmoved

From the sheet's smooth half,
And on my half the blood that—

As I've slept—has made this sheet as red
As it needs to be and ruined enough.

Now he's in our door
And telling us, "Breakfast,

Eclairs from the bakery for breakfast.
Come down."

—Sandra McPherson

[ThomCat]

1. That is a very interesting poem.

A husband who doesn't come home at night, and this sounds mournful without being truly sad. It's strong without being angry.

I'm going come back and reread this later after thinking about it some more.

[BlueIris]

2. I thought you'd like this one. I think it's...oblique at best, so if you get anything out of it,

you're one up on me when I first read it. One of my favorite poetry teachers in college swore up and down it was one of the best poems he'd read in English—subtle, svelty—and that it was more or less "about" a woman's intimate reflection on her life that gets interrupted when her male partner comes home, shattering the all-female mini-society. Which is supposed to be tragic.

I appreciate the poem's minimalism, and now that I'm older, I like the fact that it manages to covey something both intimate and remote, but—my teacher mentioned something about a daughter in the poem. Does anyone else see that?

I mostly posted this to get others thoughts about it because it's depth, if it has any, eludes me.

[ThomCat]

3. Yes, the part about taking with her daughter about their

shared perspective, language, experiences or something is pretty clear. Though it'll take some thought to figure out exactly what they are sharing.

[BlueIris]

4. Oh, duh.

Okay, I'm gonna go dig up one of the other poems I was once assigned in school that went right by me, now, and see what the Lounge comes up with.

ETA: Typo corrected. Two stanzas, not one.

[BlueIris]

5. Hmmm. Now that I want to find it, I can't find it.

But I promise you another baffling poem soon, Loungers.

[BlueIris]

6. Kick.

[ThomCat]

7. Kick. This is a really good one.

[BlueIris]

8. Aw. You're a sweetie.

[BlueIris]

9. Kick.

[wildhorses]

10. i am thinking the daughter knows the father has stayed out all

night:shrug:

[BlueIris]

11. See, what I don't get is whether the daughter knows anything at all.

I still think this poem is a little too remote to fully realize its ambitions.