Love the poem...and I hope to read more of your work. Am also curious about the point you make regarding people whose thoughts are consistent on specific issues over time...which points to who they are....because while my thinking has stayed true on lots of stuff, I'm still trying to figure out the "self"...lots to ponder. Thanks for writing this!
I really loved this exploration, Wendy thank you. And your poem is wonderful. I am very taken with it. I saved this post to read, for reasons banal, but it's timely that I thought 'now is the time' because I have just been writing about portals. So your poem ending made me shiver. A door leading nowhere, yes. Thank you for articulating that. It is also inviting me back into poem as self portrait, which isn't something I have specifically tried. Perhaps because I find the idea very exposing. My poetry is very biographical but wrapped in a layer of something abstracting, but something about a self portrait owned as such says 'here it is'. But I love that confidence and I would like to make my own attempt (though god knows how to begin!). Another thought though around identity: I feel very shape-shifting. But coherent in that, if that makes sense. Like, I am always feeling one minute bison and the next boulder. And the next, and the next. It has become predictable to me to have no real or entire stable state, but I like this very much. I feel like I am not alone in being someone who feels more animal and multitudinous. I feel sad for the people who feel stable and known to themselves. It sounds boring ;) xx
Wow! I love this poem. The overall image grabbed me right away—just by reading the title—as being full of mystery and resonances and promise. It took me a while to move on to the poem itself
which deepens my tentative thoughts. The specific images, the gravity of the lines, the push-pull of the doorway that leads nowhere bring me further into the idea of self as a burial mound.
As for your introduction, I fall into the authentic-self-is-fluid camp. I write memoir, poetry, and fiction to trace the way my sense of self has changed over my 7 1/2 decades and why. Fiction is especially fun because I can set up imagined characters to challenge and extend my thinking.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful poem and your thoughts behind it!
Hi Wendy -- I love this poem (and the whole collection). Thank you for sharing more about it 🪷
Thanks Ruth x
Love the poem...and I hope to read more of your work. Am also curious about the point you make regarding people whose thoughts are consistent on specific issues over time...which points to who they are....because while my thinking has stayed true on lots of stuff, I'm still trying to figure out the "self"...lots to ponder. Thanks for writing this!
Thanks Rajani
I really loved this exploration, Wendy thank you. And your poem is wonderful. I am very taken with it. I saved this post to read, for reasons banal, but it's timely that I thought 'now is the time' because I have just been writing about portals. So your poem ending made me shiver. A door leading nowhere, yes. Thank you for articulating that. It is also inviting me back into poem as self portrait, which isn't something I have specifically tried. Perhaps because I find the idea very exposing. My poetry is very biographical but wrapped in a layer of something abstracting, but something about a self portrait owned as such says 'here it is'. But I love that confidence and I would like to make my own attempt (though god knows how to begin!). Another thought though around identity: I feel very shape-shifting. But coherent in that, if that makes sense. Like, I am always feeling one minute bison and the next boulder. And the next, and the next. It has become predictable to me to have no real or entire stable state, but I like this very much. I feel like I am not alone in being someone who feels more animal and multitudinous. I feel sad for the people who feel stable and known to themselves. It sounds boring ;) xx
I love this: "I am always feeling one minute bison and the next boulder."
I'd love to see your self portrait poems Ruth x
Wow! I love this poem. The overall image grabbed me right away—just by reading the title—as being full of mystery and resonances and promise. It took me a while to move on to the poem itself
which deepens my tentative thoughts. The specific images, the gravity of the lines, the push-pull of the doorway that leads nowhere bring me further into the idea of self as a burial mound.
As for your introduction, I fall into the authentic-self-is-fluid camp. I write memoir, poetry, and fiction to trace the way my sense of self has changed over my 7 1/2 decades and why. Fiction is especially fun because I can set up imagined characters to challenge and extend my thinking.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful poem and your thoughts behind it!
Thanks Barbara! I'm also writing fiction right now and finding new ways to explore identity.