This poem is built around an equation, or rather, a series of equations. When I began reading the poem, I thought, "I got this. I'm good at math and english - I can analyze this into sense." So I went on reading, and did just that.
Ok, so your life ends at a. If you are b-a, then that is life to death. Simple. If you are cb-a, then you are asking for more. You want something from life. c. Religious holidays divide your days. You lose the present in preparing for the future.
But as the list grew, the mathematical placements grew arbitrary, in my mind. Why are the cards placed in your pocket an exponent? Why is your ability to hear a division, your ability to clap an addition, and why in their specific placement in the growing equation?
I began to lose myself in the letters. The letters lost meaning because there were so many of them. Trying to interpret the equations as metaphors felt like a hopeless attempt to decode something meaningless. The complications became so immense that the whole equation lost meaning. How did we get from simply cb-a to god knows what the last equation would come out to be if Peret were to continue?
But through my confusion and frustration, I think I saw the point of the poem. Or at least I see it now in retrospect. Life grows complicated and what once seemed simple becomes muddled by details. Nothing makes sense anymore. Nothing has meaning. Unless if it does; it's hard to be sure.
Hi Claire,
ReplyDeleteI also found this poem a little overwhelming, I tried to keep up but the equation did not seem to follow a stream of logic that I am familiar with. I admit to almost giving up reading the poem because I found it frustrating. However, I think I got the same meaning out of the poem as you did. It is a mystery of life, we have limited control of what affects us personally and we don't have control of the outside forces. It is odd what ends up meaning the most to you, especially looking back at things you thought were monumental.