Operation Nowt

[Delta40]

Scalpel.
Mizaru sits in a tree
blind to the flashing red tail
of a black cockatoo
Suction.
Her hands are warmer
than a man's
so she can never sell her fish
at Tsukiji.
Stitches.
If I leave my door open,
will the neighbour's radio
drown out my flights of fancy?

[osho]

Scalpel.

If I leave my door open,
will the neighbour's radio
drown out my flights of fancy?

Marvelously scribed. This is the situation we are hemmed in and I always crave the escape to a world of my fancy where in no disorderly noise can drown out the sound of the silence of my heart

[PrinceMyshkin]

The surrealism of this is compelling and - to me - somewhat baffling.

[AuntShecky]

Quite a swift operation. The OR staff consists of some fast workers!

This could be read in two ways, I suppose. The more literal interpretation describes the random thoughts of a semi-conscious patient undergoing minor surgery under sedation rather than general anesthesia. The other, more intriguing way, is that the patient is indeed "under" and the images and musings occur in the subconscious mind. He or she will have no memory of them
when she "comes to."

Either way, the piece contains "disparate images yoked by violence together" and as such qualifies as a "metaphysical" poem. Eliot meant his description to be disparaging --- but I haven't!

[Delta40]

Sorry auntie I completely missed your point there.
Prince I understand that you're baffled
Osho some of what you say is true.

[Hawkman]

I confess I'm baffled too. Mizaru, the first of the Three Wise Monkeys who therefore Sees no Evil, by the implication of being blind to the red flash of the black cockatoo's tail, might be construed as being blind to beauty too. Are the warm hands Mizaru's? The wording would seem to imply this; and why does having warm hands debar her from selling fish? Does the fact that her hands are warmer than a man's imply emotional warmth, although this runs counter to the addage, "Cold hands, Warm heart." The final stanza would seem to indicate that the narrator craves distraction from the bizarre thoughts of the preceeding stanzas. Do the Scalpel, Suction and Stitches refer to a journey of introspection, cutting into the Narrator's psyche, sucking out disparate images, and are the stictches not suchers, but laughter? (I like this idea. If you are laughing, either at yourself, or at us - the readers, as you imagaine what we will try and make of it, then good for you!)

Notwhistanding any of the above, this reads beautifully, both as a poem and a thought experiment. Very Zen....


Live and be well - H

[MystyrMystyry]

Still scratching my head over this - it's like a broken translation from the Korean, with a delerious Delterian twisting. There's form, but in some obscure three haiku-like caper; there's the surrealist flow; there's the disconnected hallucinatory effect, and some sort of magic begging it to be deciphered.

Close?

[Delta40]

Yes to all of the above!

[AuntShecky]

Guess I took the italicized words too literally-- as might be heard in an
operating room.
Now, what's a "nowt"?

[Delta40]

Nowt means nothing