half lights
are artificial dusk
in a blackened day
and they named it night,
in many tongues,
fighting against it
in the flicker of forming carbon
and the humming glow of heat contained
but i will see you now
with the cascading ridges
of finger tips restrained in their silence
and thoughtless in their motives
these visions of flesh carry no morals
divest themselves of shaming garments
and stand in mute pride
at the victory of rock and earth
wrapped tight in a stubbled cheek
Author notes
"sometimes i live in the country
sometimes i live in the town
sometimes i get a great notion
to jump in the river an drown"
-leadbelly (but kesey did something spectacular with it)
Comments
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Ah, loper who creates in half-light,
causing the reader to squint and pry,
you have sent me to the land of Wiki
to disentangle lyrics all too familiiar
which prompted the novel of great renown.
While "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
attached itself to the name of Ken Kesey
in a padded corner of my brain,
it was the lyrics that prompted
the chorus to sing out loud.
"Good night, Irene....Good night Irene..."
WhenI know lyrics they have to be old,
for those of school years took up all
the room in my brain. It was the Weavers
and Sinatra that kept it atop Billboard.
I know, for not only do I remember
but Wiki tells me so!
But neither Irene nor the novel,
"Sometimes a Great Notion,"
decode the lines in the half-light,
other than seeing prideful silence
alone in candle light.
So Loper, before I sing out loud
another chorus of "Good Night, Irene"
remembered from a gathering
of high school friends after the
first year of college, please,
I beg you, turn on the other
half of the light. The correlation
with the references iis a bit dismal.
I await enlightening!!
M-C
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ever read "a great notion"? it's all about cascading water, and general hopelessness, among other things. clothing and nakedness play a big role, along with having sex with your brother's wife.
i have to say the poem wasn't really meant as dreary as it sounds, but i guess the quote didn't help that much either. it is just a study of light/dark in comparison with shame/pride. the lofty ideals of truth in relation to the baseness of the elements? who knows, it came it real fast so i let it be! -
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Well, initially I could see the contrast, the light and dark,
some illicitness going on, it seemed.
But when I read the lyrics you posted, I was haunted by the fact that
I knew the next lines!! So off on a tangent sending sweet dreams to
Irene!
No, I was not familiar with "Sometimes a Great Notion" but I checked
out a synopsis, the labor uniion issue, the flood.
Your comment does shine light on the darkness, loper!
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I'll say now, it's not an easy poem to decode. Expressing, I have a feeling a blend of personal and universal thoughts.
''but i will see you now''
Seems to be a key shift, so that the poem is a before and after look at someone, and how you see them now, as opposed to then...once with connotations that you now have stripped from those memories...in other words, stripped of those hurts and memories.
Just a guess.
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