Petit Mort

[Manna]

There are times
when I manage
the good fortune to note
an event of beauty.

I saw a drummer and a dancer
who worshipped him
spraying her arms, legs and fingers
as if from the focus of her navel,

And two squirrels engaged
in the bickering chatter
of their love affair
as if fighting and love were twins,

And the moon and the sun
just winking at each other
from opposite sides of sky
for their impossible longing.

No, love, I am not feeling sad,
but I know the peace
of that final decision
and the danger,

Because it is this incongruity
when I come to you.
Oh, darling, don’t you see
how you excite me?

================================
Well, gang, I wrote this, and I don't know what the heck it means. I'm hoping someone can tear it up for me, but I like it too much to do it myself. I'm not even sure to whom I am writing this.

[lizzytysh]

I'm not even sure to whom I am writing this.

Hi Manna ~

This is hard to imagine; yet, you're saying it and you are the only one who can truthfully speak for yourself...

I like the poem. Very effective in its oppositions and similarities.


~ Lizzy

[Manna]

Yeah, I can see your confusion. I wrote this with my husband in mind, I just don't think I can give it to him in this form. It's part of our continuous romance that I write love poems to him. Those final two stanzas may be interpreted like I'm saying that making love with him is a form of suicide. Yeesh! Who would want to read that? So if I can't give it to him, them for whom did I write it? It needs revision revision revision. I probably shouldn't have posted it at this stage.

[Manna]

That wasn't the intent, but I saw it as a possibility and kind of fell out of love with it. And then I gave it that title, trying to make it work. bah.

[lizzytysh]

Petit Mort


There are times
when I manage
the good fortune to note
an event of beauty.

I saw a drummer and a dancer
who worshipped him
spraying her arms, legs and fingers
as if from the focus of her navel,

And two squirrels engaged
in the bickering chatter
of their love affair
as if fighting and love were twins,

And the moon and the sun
just winking at each other
from opposite sides of sky
for their impossible longing.

No, love, I am not feeling sad,
but I know the peace
of that final decision
and the danger,

Because it is this incongruity
when I come to you.
Oh, darling, don’t you see
how you excite me?

================================
Well, gang, I wrote this, and I don't know what the heck it means. I'm hoping someone can tear it up for me, but I like it too much to do it myself. I'm not even sure to whom I am writing this.

Interesting, your suicide perspective with this. I interpreted it as the ongoing feeling of small deaths when forced to remain apart. It has the push-pull tension, and the forbidden-fruit feel of the classic romance of star-crossed lovers.

The next-to-last stanza I didn't read as suicide of oneself, but rather the death of marriage and the peace that comes with finally making a decision; yet, the inherent feeling of danger that comes with the fear of having made the wrong decision, and the possibile ramifications with one's life in having done so.

It seems fitting as a description of the rare encounter that is aptly felt to be an event of beauty, with the word fortune suggesting something quite out of the ordinary.

The drummer and the dancer seem to describe the manifestation of the writer's feelings, that of inspired dance to honour those feelings of symbiosis with another... "which describe two primal opposing but complementary principles said to be found in all non-static objects and processes in the universe" [quoted from a yin-yang description]... interdependent, complementary, opposites, dualities. Dynamically symbolic of the inspired and primal, solar plexic, free expression of self.

Love affair can describe marriage, yet it's more typically used in non-marital settings... and, the bickering of discord that can come from unsettled issues can permeate the love affair that's connoted in the more typical sense.

The moon and the sun maintain a lightness of connection, yet forever apart, still suggest a depth of longing that comes from the impossibility of their being together.

The next to last stanza, I've already commented on above; except to add that the danger could be to the feeling of love, itself, as it could experience the petit mort, as well.

The final stanza, again, is more congruent with the incongruities of coming together [this, again, suggesting an atypical occurrence, outside the normal pattern and against all odds]. The excitement, of course, tends to be there in the other, less familiar, and is fostered by that very fact... almost perpetually suspended in that state of being, as long as they remain apart.

Now... to consider this as a love poem for your husband... that's more difficult... however, if your relationship remains in this heightened sense of excitement and longing, it bodes well for there never being any suicides, real, imagined, or symbolic. This is a very descriptive poem... of something .


~ Lizzy

[~greg]

"Hah!" (-attributed to June Carter)

The meaning of the poem is obvious! --From the title!

Petit "Mort" (- or "Mart"),
is what we here in the US/A call "a dollar general Store",
or Mart, where every item costs a dollar or under.
(They used to be called "five and dime stores".)

So.
The poem is about that poignant predicament of a person
who perchances upon "the good fortune" to find a "note"
(or "dollar") in the street. And takes it to the "little mart".

But all is not well!
She can't decide what to buy!

There are just too many choices: ...
The drummer? the dancer? the pair of squirrels?
the moon? the sun? the sky? ...??? ...etc.

But then finally comes the "peace of that final decision".
She has decided to buy "darling".

(Apparently "darling" is what we here in the US/A
would call: "a two bit whore." )

With a dollar she can buy 4 darlings!
Which is a really great bargain!

Hence no wonder: "peace of that final decision"!

It may even have felt almost like what the French call
"the little death".

[lizzytysh]

Greg ~

Are you suggesting discounted love for sale?? A blue light special? < *or wrong mart * >

"Hah!" (- as attributed to June Carter)


These people who just come in and think they've got it all figured out .

Well, "Hah!" (- as attributed to June Carter)



~ Lizzy


< *looks like now we're having fun with your poem, Manna... you know how Greg can get a person going off on tangents ~ blame it on Greg... blame it on Greg... however, if you're offended by any of this, I'll be happy to delete it* >

[Manna]

I was just about to come in here and rip the thing down so I could work on it in peace. Then I saw all the fun going on, and I'm feeling a little lighter now. But I'm still not giving it to my guy. I think I'll just have to write him something else.

Thanks.

And Hah, yourself!

[lizzytysh]

Hi Manna ~


... which guy ?


I have only one, last question... did you see my offer to delete?



~ Lizzy

[Manna]

oh, bugger off!
I've only one guy.

...that I'm willing to talk about.

[lizzytysh]

... and no need... such is the beauty of poetry that it has a voice of its own .




~ Lizzy

[lazariuk]

I think Manna's poem is about her love of poetry. It is said that what draws people to poetry is the longing for perfect relation.

That is why she uses "Impossible longing"

It's impossible but nevertheless it needs to be longed for and acted upon.

The secret of life is to have a task, something you devote your entire life to, something you bring everything to, every minute of the day for the rest of your life. And the most important thing is, it must be something you cannot possibly do.--Henry Moore

She knows that secret and the task she has taken on is to participate in the enterprize of bringing the two halves of perfect relation together.

And poetry hasn't dissapointed her

There are times
when I manage
the good fortune to note
an event of beauty.

She has been touched by the beauty of poetry and it has taken her to the very essence of the relation whose perfection is always out of reach.

I saw a drummer and a dancer
who worshipped him
spraying her arms, legs and fingers
as if from the focus of her navel,

I don't think I have ever seem a better way to describe the essential difference between a man and a woman.
The drummer being male, discontinuious action, each sound seperate and unique and the dancer being female, eternally continuious and fluid, having the ability to regenerate new life. Poetry put her in touch with the Goddess within and his drumming becomes like the rays of the sun spraying her. Again spray being discontinious, and it touches all of her but though she drew him to herself with her worshipping she sees that he would not be there if not for her and so she feels that it is coming from her navel which was the very last place he was connected to before being out there.

And two squirrels engaged
in the bickering chatter
of their love affair
as if fighting and love were twins,

After experiencing the direction of perfect relation that poetry has given her she thinks "but" and wonders what this means to the day to day activities of ordinary life. She then sees that it has already brought balance and now even the bickering chatter is able to be seen as a play of what belongs together. The use of squirrels gives added meaning because our general association with squirrels is in seeing them gathering food, (the little fuckers are in my garden all the time) and so she uses this to show that this participation with poetry if feeding other parts of her life, her conversations become more meaningful, her love for her husband becomes more intense, greater becomes the wonder she brings to her child.

And the moon and the sun
just winking at each other
from opposite sides of sky
for their impossible longing.

Here she speaks of the balance that she experiences when she gives herself over to the impossible. By yearing for the impossible it makes balance possible. So the sun and moon are there in the sky together like two eyes winking at each other like their being in harmony reveals some kind of cosmic joke.
Sun and moon so different but so wonderfully balanced from her point of view. She can see them as the exact same size and they are she witnesses every time they cross paths. Even knowing that from another perspective that the sun is 400 times wider than the moon she also knows that the moon is 400 times closer and both being exactly so. Even different forms of measurements become balanced in a way too exact for words.

No, love, I am not feeling sad,
but I know the peace
of that final decision
and the danger,

The beauty brought tears to her eyes and to those who see she wants to say that they are not from sadness but also that they are not completely free from sadness because along with the peace of being in touch with with the continuious nature of woman she also experiences the discontinuious nature of man and comes to know the fear he feels being seperated and so she also knows danger.

Because it is this incongruity
when I come to you.
Oh, darling, don’t you see
how you excite me?

Then she ends this so beautifully by showing that she won't let poetry carry her away from the world and turns, probably to her husband, and says that it is the very fact that they are not perfect that excites her, that touches those places she feels from her navel and makes her want to go a thousand kisses deeper.

I really think that this is an incredible poem and post this knowing that I fell far short of giving it the attention it deserves.

[lizzytysh]

Hi Jack ~

I hope Manna returns and lays claim to your beautiful explanation.

How mundane and pedestrian were ours, Greg... .

. . . probably to her husband . . .

... I hope so since, even though she initially said she wasn't even sure to whom she was writing it, she later said she wrote it with him in mind, presumably on the same side of the glass.

I agree that this is an incredible poem... it seems a mastery of balance. You, of course, made it even moreso. Reminiscent of ecstatic poetry.

So, you finally figured out why the sun and the moon eclipse so perfectly? Or, did you already have the answer when you were talking about it before?

Manna's poem and your explanation go very well together. Lovely and balanced, too.

Now, what about its title?


~ Lizzy

[lazariuk]

So, you finally figured out why the sun and the moon eclipse so perfectly? Or, did you already have the answer when you were talking about it before?
~ Lizzy

No it is all a complete mystery to me and fills me with wonder. The 400 part just makes it even more so. Do you know that the back of the moon is the only surface in the visible universe that we cannot see except by leaving our planet and going around the back to have a peek?

[lizzytysh]

The 400 part just makes it even more so.

Is the 400 part something constructed by you to logic it out... or is that the way it truly is? If it is, it constitutes what seems to be a perfectly scientific explanation.

Even so, if it's really that way, the wondrous mystery remains, as how is it that we became so perfectly joined with two celestial bodies... one for our days and one for our nights... that are so precisely matched, relative to their size and distance from us.

Do you know that the back of the moon is the only surface in the visible universe that we cannot see except by leaving our planet and going around the back to have a peek?

No, I had no idea. Do the stars rotate so we can see the back of them?


~ Lizzy