Resolve II

How touching to have
soleless feet
slapped in a borning.
With toiled hands,
have a Plath of
tulips and cats.
Visit the place
where nurses pass
and pass with no trouble
and men in white coats
push trolleys wrapped
in green plastic serenity.
Her vases have crashed,
while the world's fists now bunch
with different Resolve,
and different cats.
Claws unsheathe
in front of a gas heater
hissing and spitting
and (unlike Miss Drake),
by the time I proceed
to supper in the patient dining room,
the faceless faces of nurses
have been ripped apart.
Bloodied and battered,
I swear one of them has an
eyeball hanging out.
Don't worry folks,
she won't need a gas oven.
With much cursing,
and bottles of insults on my windowsill
this cat shreds away
all the layers of
there there public health care
till their own ugly, spiteful cats emerge,
pin me down and drag me off
to the locked ward.
I'm a naughty girl
but wallpaper is just wallpaper
isn't it?
Whoa! Is that another voice speaking?
So today I will not rise to glory.
Today I resolve to sneer at
the Plath Effect.
(Man! Take a look at the dew drops forming
on those bars!)

Delta, sometimes you just blow me away with how you spin something into deeper and deeper realms of the bizarre. This one does that presenting alleged delirium that is really the truth. The final lines a testament to this.

Brilliant!

Reminded me of the opening sentence of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: "They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them."

I think you have interesting experiences to describe. The problem with poetry is that one can too easily hide those experiences within it since people expect it to be vague and believe that vagueness somehow makes it "deep" for only the initiated to understand. For example, the reference to Plath's suicide is clear, but I don't understand the use of "cats" repeatedly in this poem. I think there is more about cats that you can tell us.

For me the best verses are :

(the rest of the poem lacks voltage)

" Whoa! Is that another voice speaking?
So today I will not rise to glory.
Today I resolve to sneer at
the Plath Effect.
(Man! Take a look at the dew drops forming
on those bars!)"

;-)

Aw Jeos I wish I'd used (the rest of the poem lacks voltage) in the poem - great line but I'm glad you liked some of it.

Yes/No one should also read Plath's poems to understand a little better and even it they haven't, the metaphor of an attacking cat should not be lost on the reader. While I understand your point about vagueness being mistaken for depth, this poem cannot be written any other way due to the nature of its theme - which ironically reinforces the Plath Effect while sneering at it - bar some editing at the suggestion of my Lit-Net friends!

FF Thanks I knew the ending was abrupt and needed something to muse on but this really is a draft so any help to improve is welcome.

Hell I love a commentary ' Don't worry folks' . I am tempted to put a commentary on everything I write telling people to go do something else instead :) Need to go look up Plath and borning FFS. Insanity underpinning again rivermouth nutjob. Enjoyable as always too. haunted is back around, for how long who knows. we should have a party :D

Takes a bow for Jerry. I do my best to fake it till I make it....

I liked this when I read it the other day, and I still like it now. I couldn't tell you why, though, Delta dear. I'm not a big fan of Sylvia Plath, and I'm not crazy about cats (though I can tolerate them.) I love tulips, however; I also love logging on to the LitNet and finding your writings here.

Auntie

PS--What's "borning"?

PPS-- That question over the "other voice" was witty! The wallpaper reference makes me think that "other (female) voice" is that of Charlotte Perkins Gillman, or am I wrong? Nobody can't say yer old (people keep reminding me I'm old) Auntie won't go out on a limb!


From the Online Journal of Mrs. Debi Snotenlocker

[QUOTE=AuntShecky;1152756]I liked this when I read it the other day, and I still like it now. I couldn't tell you why, though, Delta dear. I'm not a big fan of Sylvia Plath, and I'm not crazy about cats (though I can tolerate them.) I love tulips, however; I also love logging on to the LitNet and finding your writings here.

Auntie

PS--What's "borning"?


I'm not really a fan of Plath but I used some of her poetic themes here combined with my own recent experience. "borning' was a term Plath used. You're spot on about Gillman Auntie! Have an extra limb!

I get the feeling it's two, or even three poems in one. There's a rush of ideas and themes that need multiple scans to figure out (though that could just be me, because I haven't figured hardly any of it out yet ;) )

Another "whoa" from me, Delta, this is talent at its highest - AGAIN. Multiple-leveled, just like the head of a genius mistakingly accused and sentenced for thinking, feeling and/or seeing too much ("as compared to 'normal", ah). Renewed kudos.