Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Week 4: Magic Words

Of all the poems we read this week the one that felt most magical to me was Seeing the Wind by Shira Erlichman. It felt magical because it transported me to a different place through clear images but was also mysterious. I loved the image of getting to the end of life, not being able to offer the things you consider successes to this fish god, and having to say all the words you do not know. It got me thinking about the way we mark success, and which of those things last. 
The part of the poem that felt both most magical and most human was when "the test" begun and "I" said a series of images from being alive. This string of images felt magical because they were all ordinary things it is possible to experience on any given Thursday. We would probably rush past them if any happened in a busy day, but there is a beauty in them. Those moments that don't feel like the "most important thing" when we are "living life" are just as much what life is.
      The broken piece of a key left in the lock. 
                 The forgotten bicycle.
One who laughs in her sleep. 
        To cut one's nails too short. 
All of these things would be either annoying or ignoreable, but when I thought about each of them they felt like the wholeness of a life. 
               Arguments that can only be solved by dancing. 
       The jokes heard in sleep. 
None of these words are foreign or distant, but put together they give an amazing vignette of a life. Those Ordinary Thursday Words are magical. 


--Hannah

1 comment:

  1. Hi Hannah,

    I also enjoyed serendipity of her writing and she shifting tones throughout the poem. She goes from beautifully relatable imagery that invokes empathy, uncomfortable experiences, laundry list of thoughts, unpleasant imagery, to humorous imagery to gain the pathos of the reader. The poem in the parenthesis are meant to bring us to those moments and reflect on them, since they are not moments we particularly reflect on a daily basis. I believe that is the magic in her poetry.

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