Andre Breton's Choose Life is now definitely high up on the list of my most favorite poems currently, because his use of fantastic imagery as well as the emotion that strikes when read aloud (Why have I not always read poems aloud? It really allows for a connection between the poet and reader.)
My favorite word pairings: overripe stones, murmuring pool, and especially, less gentle shelves. I have come to realize the importance of being odd in the world. Like with these descriptions, it is the unusual that grabs our attentions and hold our minds there for a second longer.
As important, or more or less, I am not quite certain, are the phrases and lines that caught my voice for a moment as I read them:
The life of being here nothing but being here
Where one voice says Are you there where another
answers Are you there
I'm hardly here at all alas
And even though we might be making fun of what we kill
Choose life
All I can come up with, or at least the thought I am stopping at and what I want to stress, is that there is power in words that are both specific and general. Like the specific conversation between two people, but the next line, I'm hardly here at all alas is one that can be related to anyone. In the next line too, And even though we might be making fun of what we kill, kill seems to be such a specific action, but depending on who you are and where you are, it can mean many different things. Like I, being from a place with lots of hunting reads something very different than someone who is in affiliation with the military. In a word being able to apply both personally and worldly, there is magic.
Another favorite part of mine,
Though the sun is only a shipwreck
Insofar as a woman's body resembles it
Because of the image so strong I could paint it, if I had that kind of ability, that is; also I love it because of what the poet says about women here. Though it may not be what he intended, I take meaning from the words that women are broken, but still powerful, still bright, still strong.
Finally(I cannot make myself pick simply one),
Life the makeup on God's face
I love the oddity of the statement primarily, but also there is an openness here too. Makeup is not everywhere, but in many places a universal concept. But there is cultural differences, for sure, which also made me think about the differences in beauty across cultures. It is subjective, like what makes a good life, and what qualifies as choosing a life (or a life worth living).
Payton,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with your statements above completely. I feel that the lines about two objects that we would not usually associate with each other convey the most emotion and intensity in this poem. I was just going to propose the question: do you feel that authors devise these lines based on their own life experiences, or do the lines simply create themselves as the story is being told. In other words, if we compare this poem to our life, is each step we take something we think about or do these small steps simply happen because we are so familiar with the action?
What good questions you pose! Honestly and personally, I think both: I think the line create themselves because of the author's own life experiences. I would like to answer your next question similarly, but it seems altogether quite different. As simply, quickly, and painlessly as I can I will answer that I think the larger, more foreign steps we writers may pause to think about, but the smaller steps may come as simply as walking. I know that is more of a theory than a rule in any matter, but it is the answer I am presently sticking with.
DeleteHi Payton,
ReplyDeleteI also really appreciated the quotes you choose to blog about. "Overripe Stones" is so logically ridiculous phrase, as though rocks could grow on trees. As for the meaning of the poem, there is no way for certain to obtain it. As I mentioned in class, I think it alludes to World War I and his disagreement with it's industrial, rationality, and conclusive view. "We might be making fun of what we kill," may be suggesting we attempt to humiliate and degrade the opposing side loses. Additional phrases and images that led me to believe my viewpoint are "white fabric singing in the air" (concession white flag). "Instead of those overripe stones choose this heart with its safety catch," prompting solider not to use cannons and chose empathy. However, I think the interpretation can go many ways.