" Beauty is truth and truth is beauty" said Keats or as Leonard says "The end of a Grecian Urn"
Well that’s the way I felt about Leonard’s verses when I first read them. Besides the overall amazing imagery of his words, my initial impression was the positive/negative aspect of some of his words. To me it does seem that this ambiguity is omnipresent in his work.
Now, as you can see, I’m more of a visual person and have a different way to blacken a page than with the written word.
I need your help here to understand Leonard’s reason for approaching these contrasting ideas in this manner.
Is it just to attract attention to the main thrust of the work? Or is it to confound the reader for a purpose? Maybe it is used to enhance a hidden meaning. Is it an official poetry device?
Here are some examples of what I mean:
I am not life
I am not death
I am not slave or free…
A flame that doesn’t need to live
and doesn’t need to die…
Where none was sick
and none was well…
Death is old, but it’s always new…
I need you, I don’t need you…
We’re both of us beneath our love
we’re both of us above…
I can’t forget but I don’t remember what
I can’t forget but I don’t remember who…
The open hearted many
the broken hearted few
the broken hearted many
the open hearted few…
I will kill you if I must, I will help you if I can
I will help you if I must, I will kill you if I can…
May everyone live, and may everyone die
hello my love, and my love goodbye…
All suggestions welcome.
