Three Images

[PrinceMyshkin]

A starry night.

A tiger’s mouth
lacey with the blood of a lamb.

A diningroom table
with a schoolchild’s homework
spread out, unfinished.

[dafydd manton]

I love the elegant simplicity of it, Prince, although I'm not going to claim that I know what you were thinking of.. I've got to say, the concatenation of a tiger with a bloodied mouth, and a schoolchild whose work is unfinished is unnerving. Especially at night. Nice piece of work. (I'm going to have to sit and think this one through!)

[adityasam]

Sophisticated Poetry at it's very best. (one small q....why not dining table?)


A diningroom table
with a schoolchild’s homework
spread out, unfinished.

Favourite Lines

Regards!

[Bar22do]

I guess the child, once the babysitter fell asleep, went to the living room to watch a National Geographic production about tigers hunting in the vicinity of sheep pastures...!

or is this a fourth image? :smilewinkgrin:

a nice read, PM, thanks, Bar

[hillwalker]

Intriguing juxtaposition of images here, Prince.

For some reason the second verse put me in mind of Blake (though I doubt that was your intention unless the homework was a poetry assignment.....)

It leaves us feeling there is something unfinished or abandoned about the whole sequence - the reader left to fill in the blanks. I liked this, but could never explain why.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Many thanks Dafy, Bar and

Adityasam:
Sophisticated Poetry at it's very best. (one small q....why not dining table?)

“Dining table,” if I had thought of it, would seem more British to me than colloquial N. American.


Intriguing juxtaposition of images here, Prince.

For some reason the second verse put me in mind of Blake (though I doubt that was your intention unless the homework was a poetry assignment.....)It wasn't my intention although certainly Blake's "Tyger" flitted across my mind as did the OT reference to the lion lying down with the lamb.


It leaves us feeling there is something unfinished or abandoned about the whole sequence - the reader left to fill in the blanks. I liked this, but could never explain why.

Nor could I currently explain why those three belong together: the first two came spontaneously and the poem seemed to me to require a third to be anything like a complete poem but the last image was not arrived at in anything like a logical, conscious way; which I think touches on the question of how far a poet should be expected to be able to provide a prose justification/explanation for his/her poem.

[Jerrybaldy]

Like Hill, I have no idea why I like this so. I know I could never have written the middle of the three, so I instantly admire that. The three images have no link I can think of. It would seem that any old Joe could have three random ideas and chucked them on the paper. Maybe thats why it works, as it seems that way, but that is far from the truth. The pleasure it gives to read is enigmatic but undeniable. I really like it Prince, it makes me want to attempt that style.
cheers
Jerry

[Delta40]

it is easy to connect all three images and interpret them any way one chooses.

[hillwalker]

Blake's "Tyger" flitted across my mind

Mine too Prince, as well as his 'Little lamb who made thee' line from his other poem in the same series.

I still haven't figured out why this poem intrigues me so much - the sign of a fine work, that it's worth reading more than once.

[tailor STATELY]

The first image brought me to the song "Vincent" (Starry, Starry Night) by Don McLean, which led me to Van Gogh's beautiful panting "De Sterrennacht" (The Starry Night) [as viewed from his sanitarium no less].

The second [as I study], Blakes "The Tyger" and "The Lamb", or even Franz Marc's paintings; though both 'artists' works are singular and not entwined... interesting.

The third... a parent's (or grandparent's) oft scene at home this time of the year before bedtime.

Thank you for allowing us the privilege of 'viewing' this corner of the gallery of your mind.

[symphony]

I love and respect the freedom you take in your poems, Prince. It is this freedom that pulls me more intro poetry than prose, this freedom of simply penning down images/visions/dreams, if it comes to just that, without having to explain. Of course they do have explanations when they occur, but afterwards if you lose them, it doesnt really matter, for again then the reader is free, free to feel of their own.

Have you ever been a poet just to be free?

[billl]

All three are frustrating, in a way (is that well-put?), but there is still reason to smile at each of them. The beauty of out-of-control results, or something? If the starry night had been moved to the end, well, then the progression is obvious. But with the situations mixed, the idea of progression is marginalized.

Things are a mystery for various reasons: because of distance, conflict, growth... And we can grasp the reasons behind the mystery, in some limited sense.

Maybe this poem could be "better" (for some readers, looking for whatever else they might need), but it couldn't really give me any more to think about, nice work!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thank you Delta, Tailor and Hill


All three are frustrating, in a way (is that well-put?), but there is still reason to smile at each of them. The beauty of out-of-control results, or something? If the starry night had been moved to the end, well, then the progression is obvious. But with the situations mixed, the idea of progression is marginalized.

Things are a mystery for various reasons: because of distance, conflict, growth... And we can grasp the reasons behind the mystery, in some limited sense.

Maybe this poem could be "better" (for some readers, looking for whatever else they might need), but it couldn't really give me any more to think about, nice work!

"The idea of progression [may be] marginalized" as you suggest and yet somehow, in the mist of my subconscious, the progression is a meaningful one.

Your "Things are a mystery" paragraph is lovely in itself and provocative.

JerryB:
Like Hill, I have no idea why I like this so. I know I could never have written the middle of the three, so I instantly admire that. The three images have no link I can think of. It would seem that any old Joe could have three random ideas and chucked them on the paper. Maybe thats why it works, as it seems that way, but that is far from the truth. The pleasure it gives to read is enigmatic but undeniable. I really like it Prince, it makes me want to attempt that style.
cheers


Indeed “any old Joe” could toss together three seemingly random images, but hopefully he’d be guided in his choice by intuition, even if he couldn’t bring that intuition to the witness table afterwards

Symphony
I love and respect the freedom you take in your poems, Prince. It is this freedom that pulls me more intro poetry than prose, this freedom of simply penning down images/visions/dreams, if it comes to just that, without having to explain. Of course they do have explanations when they occur, but afterwards if you lose them, it doesnt really matter, for again then the reader is free, free to feel of their own.

Have you ever been a poet just to be free?

What a great question you ask and I wish I had a coherent answer to that. I can’t say I consciously chose to write poetry for that reason but only that I have felt a very different sort of freedom when writing fiction than I do writing poetry. And in the latter case, it’s an ambiguous sort of freedom, in that I submit myself more readily to my subconscious.

[angliholic]

A starry night.

A tiger’s mouth
laced with the blood of a lamb.

A diningroom table
with a schoolchild’s homework
spread out, unfinished.


Good for you!
Like others, this piece intriques me deeply. It makes me think for a long time why it's so fascinating!
Here is my potshot now:
It's like an enigma without an answer!
So is life!
When there is no answer, life and enigmas are all the more fascinating!

[blank|verse]

Being honest, I didn't really get much out of this as a whole poem. Sorry, Prince. There's a lot for the reader to do (are we in Lacan or Derrida territory here?) but for me, the images presented don't really inspire me to believe there's anything deeper going on than what's on the surface.

I got most out of the third stanza, which is the most original, the other two being, respectively, cliched, and too heavily suggestive of Blake, as hillwalker pointed out.

Maybe there's something more you can do with that third stanza?

[lallison]

Thanks PM, this was quite piquant. ISM is quite progressive regarding utilizing current educational research and one of the policies here, at least in the elementary school, is not to give homework unless teachers can justify it. There's actually very little research out there suggesting that homework improves learning, and considering all the extra curricular activities these kids have to do, apart from just having fun being kids, why give homework and cozen away their childhood joys? i always enjoy your work, PM. cheers

[Hawkman]

I like this one Prince, and I don't find the progression through the images causes the reader any problems. I think it says enough with the few words you have chosen, to describe the narrative quite vividly.

Live long and prosper.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Being honest, I didn't really get much out of this as a whole poem. Sorry, Prince. There's a lot for the reader to do (are we in Lacan or Derrida territory here?) but for me, the images presented don't really inspire me to believe there's anything deeper going on than what's on the surface.

I got most out of the third stanza, which is the most original, the other two being, respectively, cliched, and too heavily suggestive of Blake, as hillwalker pointed out.

Maybe there's something more you can do with that third stanza?

But should or could I expect every one of my poems to resonate with every possible reader?

Thanks, also to Angliholic, Hawkman and Lallison.

[Haunted]

The juxtaposition of the images is stunning. Its frightening, after seeing a kill the last thing on one's mind is a child doing his homework. If I have to string it together, then it's the resemblance between the child and the lamb. The fate of the lamb makes the child all the more vulnerable. There's something really stylish about this piece.

[dafydd manton]

As you know, Prince, I am far from being an expert - very, very far, but I keep coming back to this, becasue I love it so. It has differing effects on me, depending upon factors such as my mood, even time. Please, please, leave it just as it is, or I shall have to sulk. (Not a pretty sight!)

[miyako73]

I see this as a poem by a mother who observes her child.

[PrinceMyshkin]

As you know, Prince, I am far from being an expert - very, very far, but I keep coming back to this, becasue I love it so. It has differing effects on me, depending upon factors such as my mood, even time. Please, please, leave it just as it is, or I shall have to sulk. (Not a pretty sight!)

My apologies but I have changed "laced" to "lacey" which was how I originally imagined it but I had forgotten that laced can also mean generously provided with.

Thank you and Haunted and Miyako as well.

[GEETASHREE]

I'd equate the poor child over burdened with home work alienated from Nature with the bloody lamb caught in the tiger's mouth symbolizing the cruel system.

May be the interpretation is borne out of the microcosm of a society emerging out of transition from one world to the other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very uncommon contrasts and usage of symbols and images

[PrinceMyshkin]

I'd equate the poor child over burdened with home work alienated from Nature with the bloody lamb caught in the tiger's mouth symbolizing the cruel system.

May be the interpretation is borne out of the microcosm of a society emerging out of transition from one world to the other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very uncommon contrasts and usage of symbols and images

Thanks, Getashree. Here, as in some of my other poems, I allow the images to come intuitively and, when I can, trust to the logic of my subconscious, which was very much the case here. The first two images seemed to belong together but to require a third and, with patience, that third one arrived and seemed to me to fit - though I would have been hard-pressed to say how.