A memory jogger about negative capability: " “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
I think there's a secondary trauma involved when you're denied access to your own lineage. One tine of my family fork has an outrageous amount of mental illness and suicides. I think about how shitty it was, having all these people I share DNA with locked away in the "deepest cabinets" of our family history.
The big irony here, in the poem, is that the denial by the mother, the slap, is actually more violent and traumatic for the speaker-son than actually connecting in someway to his grandfather.
The Portrait
Powerful are the wounds we recieve.
Powerful are the wounds we inflict.
Powerful are the words we grieve,
with
Heartbreaking
a whole life in a handful of lines, felt on our cheeks no matter where we are.
The ability to convey so much with so few words can inspire awe.
A memory jogger about negative capability: " “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.”
To read about a tragedy through a poem which this poem does beautifully helps me to summarise my own thoughts.
Wow. Such words.
Heartbreaking indeed..... Yet beautiful and touching. And it feels so true in my life.
This is powerful! Can see the locked closet, hear the thumping and the ripping of the artwork , and feel the slap on the face!
•The Wild Braid
A Poet Reflects On A Century In The Garden•
A beautiful book I found many years ago. Stanley Kunitz with Genine Lentine.
Wow…I feel that one. Good Lord.
Wow. What do I hear thumping?
Earnest and painful to read!
This is such a powerful piece! Do not even know where to begin!
I think there's a secondary trauma involved when you're denied access to your own lineage. One tine of my family fork has an outrageous amount of mental illness and suicides. I think about how shitty it was, having all these people I share DNA with locked away in the "deepest cabinets" of our family history.
The big irony here, in the poem, is that the denial by the mother, the slap, is actually more violent and traumatic for the speaker-son than actually connecting in someway to his grandfather.
Wow. Holy crap. That’s potent. I feel that burning cheek, too.
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/