30 Poems in 30 Days 2009: Day Six
September 6, 2009 by J.C. Hewitt
Today I would like to talk about reflection and separation. Reflection is a word with a surprising number of meanings, but there are two that I want to talk about. One is the reflection of an image, such as a face in the mirror or a mountain reflected in a calm lake. The second is self-reflection, also known as introspection. This is the moment when you look at your inner self and try to gain some perspective. Separation refers to the distance between objects, whether they are words on a page, towns on a map or moments in your life. Separation provides perspective.
Separation and reflection occur fairly frequently in poetry. Rhyme contains both. Rhyme can be one word after the next, or separated by a line, or separated by several lines. The rhyme itself is a reflection. A representation of the sound from one word is seen in the other. This becomes even more prominent if you use a mirror image. When an object is reflected back, you actually see the object in reverse. At its purest sense, this is hard to pull off in poetry. There are a limited number of words that can actually have a mirror look, such as dib and bid. Sounds are much easier to reflect though. Pull and loop, side and dice, feel and leaf, are reflections. Reflection can also extend to whole phrases. Here the reflection is in the arrangement of the words, and thus in the meaning behind them. For example, a poem may begin with the phrase, “Susan wrote a note to John” and end with “John wrote a note to Susan” or “John read a note from Susan”. Both endings reflect the beginning, separated by the length of the poem.
Self-reflection, or introspection, is a common theme in poetry. One of the reasons people write poetry is to reflect on the meaning of the events in their lives or the emotions they are feeling. They use poetry to sort things out. Poetry is great for this, but it has its limitations as well. Writing poetry for yourself means that you can say whatever you want as long as it helps you find meaning. When you write for an audience though, you need to take their needs into account. You need to ask whether what you are writing is meaningful to just you or if it will be meaningful to other people. Will they want to see your reflection?
Today’s Poetry Prompt
Use the same (or similar) words in both your first line and last line, but change the order or the meaning of the words from the first line to the last line.
Dive
The clouds floated across the pool
Moving along as I stared down from the diving board
In the dawn sunrise
Of an already scorching Arizona summer
I could hear the whine of the cicadas in the hedges
I could feel the humidity clinging to my skin
It caught in my lungs as I breathed it in
The day was stacked against me
An endless loop of tasks to come
I dove into the pool
Feeling the cold hard draught of the water
As my body burst its skin
I swam the length underwater
Emerging on the other side
I caught my breath as the water calmed itself again
Then I turned on my back
Staring up into the peace
As the pool floated across the clouds
Death is not my reality.
Teenage years of immortality,
No Risk, no thought, no fear.
Ready to fight, fearing little.
Who to ask out, to trust and share
Jump, Run, Laugh
Yearning to Love,
Not knowing the word,
Kisses, Touches, Shivers.
Paths separate, join and dissipate,
who was first, last, or still on the journey,
Circles, Triangles and Flat lines.
Responsibilities to money,
Fights are with shadows,
Gifts, Given and Received.
Seeing change as more,
Feeling that life is won more day,
My reality is not death.
Today’s topic kept reminding me of that song from Mulan, so I put it in my poem. But this is my first attempt at a more serious poem, so it does sound a little weird, anyway…
The Girl In The Mirror
I looked into the mirror
And saw someone else;
Someone who was different
Alien, really, as well.
Though she was my reflection,
I could barely claim recognition;
For she seemed very pale
And quite near to depression.
That old song came back to me:
Something about reflections,
And even as I shook my head
The mirror looked back at me.
Never Alone
With internet, you are never alone
Always accessible
Nationally
And internationally
Instant communication
Always available
Always connected
But
Never alone
Yet never present
You see people
But you hear online
You talk
But you engage online
You are never alone with internet.
The Photo
Close, he looks nervous
Closer, secretly amused.
My smile looks happy,
reflections obscure my eyes.
Body language? We look close!
See for yourselves: http://rosemary-nissen-wade.blogspot.com/2009/09/well-look-at-us.html
(This is also doing duty as my “Tanka on Tuesday” at MySpace today – being posted to both places Tuesday 8th in my part of the world.)
This comes a bit late,
But the weekend fills up quite quickly.
Perhaps I’ll have to eat my words to John, chiding him for tardiness.
All this said here is my submission…
Reflections
Reflected light
streams through the window.
and bathing the the room in light.
I sit, quietly pondering. I ask:
Light cuts through the darkness.
Knowledge despells ingnorace.
Hope conquers fear.
Is their meaning to life?
Can life have meaning?
How is fear conquered by hope?
And ignorance slave to knowlegde?
Why does darkness flees from light.
I pause and ponder the quiet while sitting
in a lighted romm, bathing
beneath the window’s stream
of light reflected.
@James
Like your play on “reflections” and love the way you’ve transposed the wording at beginning and end. These lines have a quiet beauty that is perfectly in keeping with the topic and your interpretation of it. Also appreciate the way the other lines are also transposed in order and meaning in second verse.
You’ve so nearly got a winner here! Please fix spelling and typos. I would also remove “and” from start of 3rd line, and “I ask” from end of 4th line. (You could keep the colon, perhaps.) I’m also not sure that “ignorance slave to knowledge” is the most apt metaphor here; doesn’t quite match “dispells” in first verse.
This poem is so worth a little bit of tightening!
@rosemary…
I had the sense that this is a gem in the rough, but was at odds as to what to do to improve it. I noticed the I ask on line 4…
Thanks for your thoughts.
This poem will definately get a rework.
James