Forward from KaitlynG: So many thoughts can come to a person when reading. Finding little details or looking at the broader picture; trying to find the author’s meaning in the words, versus feeling your personal heartstrings tug at where the writing pulls you in. Scholars and simple readers alike can pour over an author’s work in different ways, studying themes and structure in their own ways. Poems, to me, are some of the easiest forms of writing that can be pulled apart like this. Yet I know it can also be a struggle to do so as well, either getting confused by language, or the true message the author intended flying over your head. I believe then, while it’s understandable to want to know every detail and facet of what the author meant, that you can read poems as how they speak to you specifically. How you feel; what the writing means to you; how you read it in your mind. So, with these many poems I’ve been given to read over, I wanted to express this way of thinking over them. Going author by author, I want to connect the dots of what this tiny sample of all their works means to me.
And so, to me, Shutta Crum’s works that are featured here give me a distinctive feeling: Yearning. The poems I read all seem to look at the past in some way, and the writer’s desire for or remembrance of the feelings that took place there. Whether it’s the struggle between love and loss, simply looking over past objects with fondness, or giving character to nature yearning for rest. Each poem in the set I read feels so different if you read them separately, but reading them all side-by-side made them feel like one person.
“Leaving The Lake” instantly filled me with the struggle that comes from internally yearning for two different things. One is the desire to leave where you are in search of greener pastures; the other is wanting to be with the one you love most, waiting on them no matter what. It’s the lines, “I promise to stay as long as I can. / I thought you’d want to know.” in the middle of the poem that gets me the most though. The writer’s telling this person that they’re waiting on them, and explaining away their desire to leave the lake, even with the geese that beckon them with “Are you coming?”. But saying “I thought you’d want to know.” also makes their promise feel distant. Like the person whose sweater they put on to stay warm isn’t in that cracking cabin anymore, or maybe they were never there in the first place. In a deeper sense, this poem is about trying to keep alight a love that’s turning more distant and cold, narrated by collecting firewood amidst the approaching winter. The geese beckoning them then are the parts of their mind telling them to let go of this love; they’re flying away since life is dying here, and they need somewhere warm and safe, and their actions try to urge the writer to do the same. I believe this poem paints this internal struggle beautifully, and the ending leaves the reader wondering what path the writer will take in the end: Hunker down for the winter, or leave the lake with the geese.
Reading these poems, even when I maybe look too deep into them or maybe put too much thought into a few words, has been very fun. Finding meanings, either the writer’s or my own, is an exciting way to exercise my brain and appreciate the writing that’s been given to me. “A Gathering of Poets 2”, the collection of poems that was given to me, may hopefully become a series I keep reviewing and pouring my thoughts into for the rest of my time here at First Coast Life, along with any other blogs I can do. My only hope is that these make you yearn for more, either of this series, or for more of these amazing works of art.
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LEAVING THE LAKE
In an uprush of wings, wild geese are abandoning the lake.
They rise with their cries of are you coming?
Lifting from the watery reflections of maple and alder,
each finds its place in the slanting light.
I, too, feel Winter’s approach
hear her stealing through the evening hours,
see her white breath curl and swell across the water,
know her handiwork in the filigree lacing the shallows.
So, I’m chinking the splintered gaps in the old house,
bringing in the firewood, restocking the larder.
I promise to stay as long as I can.
I thought you’d want to know.
When the snow deepens, I’ll put on your sweater.
The sleeves, too long, will shelter my hands.
I’ll walk the path to the water.
The last of the geese will have gathered in the mist.
They’ll stretch their necks, lift heavy bottoms,
slap the lake into a frenzy of silver,
and cry out, as they veer off over the pines,
Are you coming? Are you coming?
(Previously published in 3rd Wednesday, 2022.)
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A bachelor’s student (soon-to-be graduate!) of Communications & Media, with a passion for writing whatever words come to her mind. Taking inspiration from the most complicated feelings to the simplest things like cute clouds; you can transform anything you can imagine into a feast for the eyes and mind, in my opinion. I also like to take pictures of those cute clouds, among other things, whenever a sight strikes me with happiness or intrigue.
I’ve been writing among friends for several years, but my published works right now are my summer internship blogs with Connecting Thru Music (https://connectingthrumusic.org/blog)! I can’t wait to write more blogs here for First Coast Life, whether that be inspirational rambles or about my visits to all the amazing events and sights the first coast has to offer!
