The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 2/10/08

[BlueIris]

"The Gate"

I had no idea that the gate I would step through
to finally enter this world

would be the space my brother's body made. He was
a little taller than me: a young man

but grown, himself by then,
done at twenty-eight, having folded every sheet,

rinsed every glass he would ever rinse under the cold
and running water.

This is what you have been waiting for, he used to say to me.
And I'd say, What?

And he'd say, This—holding up my cheese and mustard sandwich.
And I'd say, What?

And he'd say, This, sort of looking around.

—Marie Howe

[BlueIris]

1. Kick. (Gasp! Someone gave me a HEART!)

Thanks, someone!!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear BlueIris!

Interesting...

As usual, I'm not sure I get it...

Did the older brother die, or something?

It sounds like it to me...

Congrats on the heart!

Nope, not me...

:hug:

[BlueIris]

3. The brother died of advanced HIV disease.

I put a post about it in the three other posts, but...posters skipped those. The posts that put this one in a little bit more context are in the last three poetry breaks which are in my journal with the others.

[BlueIris]

4. Kick.

[ThomCat]

5. You can tell from this series that her brother

was very, very important to her while she was growing up, and she clearly misses him. And from some of the others it seems like she survived childhood in large part because of him.

There is a larger picture here that comes through from the collection that doesn't come through any of the individual poems. This is very cool.

[BlueIris]

6. Actually, I think the brother who died is a different brother than the protective brother

she alludes to in the poems about surviving her childhood. But the qualities of all the personas depicted in the poems kind of blur together because of the ambiguity Howe leaves in the book, which I think was supposed to emphasize the inherent sameness of family members and among members of the human family (a reminder of how interconnected we are). Also, I think she wanted to keep the poems about the living family members sort of vague—or more vague than the poems about the brother who died because of privacy concerns.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. She is so good

thanks.

[BlueIris]

8. Oh, I agree.

Her work is constantly praised for its artistry.