Light, Part 2

Photo by Diana Ewell Engel

Considering Light

When you think of light, what comes to mind? Besides the sun and moon, day—and its opposite, night—light, or the lack thereof, has many associations. For instance, in casual conversation, we can feel carefree and say we are “lighthearted.” If we are dizzy, we may be “lightheaded.” In your personal reading and show viewing, you likely have encountered light as meaning celestial and dark as referring to the region of terror.

Poets take images like light and give them emotional life, connecting these images to the speaker and the moment unfolding in the poem. Within such a context, the image takes on special meaning.

Below is my poem, “New Year Forecast” from my book, Excavating Light. Read this poem first silently, then aloud. When you hear lines of poetry read, this can help in suddenly understanding meaning and also hearing the musical words that make the poem sing. Notice the light and what is being illuminated.

New Year Forecast

Following fitful sleep, /
I wake to see the lightning-split elm/
kindled-wet 
with winter sun, /
skeletal arms shouting-up the sky. //

My dark injuries / 
suddenly luminous: /
Every tenuous misstep, loss, /              
small strokes 
on a canvas, /
this landscape of light. //

Like the sparrow 
at my feeder, /
I can sing, /
knowing the siege dies here. //
      
My dog watches, / 
waits for my voice, / 
the stroke of my hand, /
this familiar, /
her treasure. //

-Diana Ewell Engel

Photo by Siora Photography on Unsplash

So, what is this poem about?

~ What inspired “New Year Forecast?”

I wrote “New Year Forecast” after a difficult night of tossing and turning.  Bleary-eyed, I pulled myself out of bed and began opening blinds. Outside my dining room, the trunk and branches of a crepe myrtle shone brightly with a blue, cloudless sky peeping through.  I was startled by this vision of beauty which seemed redemptive, and I was compelled to put this into words. In the first stanza, I painted this picture.

~ Why change the tree to a “lightning-split elm?”

In creative writing, we have license to fictionalize. Because crepe myrtles can be small or large, and elms are imposing, I chose the elm. Additionally, my musical language mind picked out words that repeat the consonant l and the vowel i.  I will explain about “lightning-split” as I tell you about the next two stanzas.

~ What are these “dark injuries” and “tenuous missteps” in the second stanza?

I will answer this question with a question for you:  As you think about your life, have you felt emotionally wounded at various times?  Have you encountered moments of indecision, times when your actions seemed weak or misguided, now in retrospect?

One of the wonders and, alternately, a frustration of interpreting a poem is that often, the poet gives you more questions than answers with the images they choose. The beauty of not telling the reader too much is the gift to each unique reader to interpret the poem according to their experience and knowledge.

After writing this stanza, the idea of changing “elm” to “lightning-split elm” came into my mind. The tree is still alive but has been damaged by lightning, a parallel to me.

~ Is someone painting? What are these “small strokes on a canvas?”

In the metaphorical way that Mark Smith-Soto chooses “hope skip(ping) under the skin” in his poem “Daybreak” to refer to his excited pulse as a young boy, I have chosen “small strokes on a canvas” as a visual metaphor to relate to the sorrows of my past. I remembered my days in art class when I worked layer by layer on an oil painting, the many tiny brushstrokes that would become part of the larger image.  Here is also the idea that my joy and sadness blend to create my internal landscape so that even my wounds radiate light.

~ What is the light intended to mean?

You may have discerned the meaning of light in my poem by now.  The landscape outside is lit brightly by sun, so brightly that the “arms” of the elm seem to be shouting praises into the sky. Joy is rising in this scene, and past mistakes no longer loom large in the darkness of a sleepless night. They are subsumed by a kind of spiritual light, a grace.

~ Is a war raging in the third stanza? What is this “siege?”

Again, I am using a metaphor. At times, we can feel besieged by difficult circumstances and situations. This is the predicament of being human in our broken world. An equally significant word to notice in that last line of stanza three is the word “here.”  I am in my home; this is my “here.” The siege cannot enter my place of refuge.

~ Why did you bring your dog into this poem?

I had to bring my darling Cowgirl into this poem because there she was, a Muse in dog form, standing beside me as I gazed at the stunning tree : ), and because she in her canine wisdom recognized that home was her refuge; all she sought was this comfort and my loving attention. Dogs let go of most meanness we may thoughtlessly inflict upon them; the past doesn’t haunt these love-wired beings.

Photo by Diana Ewell Engel

Cowgirl, a joy in my family’s life for nearly 14 years. A quick-minded frisbee catcher who would, as a puppy, fetch the newspaper and bring it in flying!

Questions about “New Year Forecast?”

Ask away in the Comment bubble!

Today’s Book Pick

Sailing Alone Around the Room is a joy to read. The book description says it well: Collins’s poems “may, and often do, begin with the everyday and end in the infinite.” You will enjoy his verse which is very readable, often poignant, witty, and humorous, and always worth your time.

Seized Tips: How to Read, Enjoy, and Understand Poetry

*Read a poem silently, then aloud.

*Don’t expect every poem to make perfect sense to you.  Embrace, instead, the feelings it evokes within you.

*Follow the poet down the sensory path:  See, touch, taste, hear, smell, feel their images. After you read the poem, close your eyes and immerse yourself in the world created for you, the reader.  

*Visualize the pictures a poem creates and notice how those images are developed and what seems to you to be the poet’s final destination. This will help you in discerning meaning.

*If the sense of the poem seems to unravel, forget about meaning and dive into the deep end with the poet! Enjoy the swim; don’t waste your energy dog paddling, trying to understand every line ; ).