Inquisitor! incognizable Word
Of Eden and the enchained Sepulchre,
Into the steep savannahs, burning blue,
Utter the loneliness the sail is true.
Hart Crane, 'Ave Maria, ' The Bridge
So, I get it. I get it. I get it.
Metaphorical progression. Logical discontinuity.
Ideational subtlety. Muscular tenacity.
Passionate intensity. Intentional obscurity.
Enigmatic simplicity. Verbal obliqueness.
The juxtaposition of opposites.
The opposite of clarity.
Imagistic precision. Rapture.
Omnivision.
Poetry.
Poetry of the people
is a misnomer.
Poetry for the people
should require
the people to submit
to inner struggle;
should force
submission
of the intellect.
Let words wash over you;
strip your consciousness nude
so the super-id
can be bathed in
the ocean tide,
a tide that overwhelms
each personal will,
chills the sensibility,
cleanses the spirit within,
and renders meaninglessness
meaningful,
the awful, awesome,
content, bottomless,
thought, oceanic
time, timeless
each moment, forever,
limits, boundless,
beyond Ultima Thule,
the words independent,
the word, immanent,
the Word, wordless,
a fathomless cloud of fatherless
words, words, words.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Your poem ends with a triple repetition of WORDS, which is exactly what Hamlet says to Polonius, who, being a literalist, doesn't have a clue about his meaning. But your poem is wise and grasps the wonder of words and then releases that wonder to your readers. There are so many brilliant insights in this poem I will have to come back to end and spend time with them. But two passages immediately caught me: POETRY SHOULD REQUIRE THE PEOPLE TO SUBMIT TO INNER STRUGGLE and LET WORDS WASH OVER YOU, STRIP YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS NUDE. I am 100% with you on both activities you present. The inner struggle shows poetry enhances our interior life, and the effort at understanding we must willingly make. Letting words wash over our selves is often the best first step in dealing with a poem, especially modernist poetry.