Austen’s coded statement bridges
Maria to Sterne’s caged starling:
she cannot get out
severe systematic errors of passion’s blur
constructs and deconstructs perplexities
so trembling with sensitive humanity
she thrusts her head through the trellis
in a sentimental journey
encountering order of magnitude problems
myth of Poros, Penia, & Eros
defines aporia, untranslatable
her psychic risk of embodying an artist
this inebriated velleity
invents visual communication
within Kahneman’s maps of bounded rationality
moral heuristics define
representativeness, availability, and anchoring
buried images in etymological adventures
exposing an ultimate paradox of experimental art
potentiality collides with reigning style
hypertext meets the chthonic
in a labyrinth of canonical sources
the trick is on the starling
she wants out while everyone else wants in
Derrida’s post-structuralism
exposes and undermines the oppositions
hierarchies and paradoxes:
signifier/signified; sensible/intelligible;
writing/speech; passivity/activity
liquid modernity’s tentative position
within the cloud construction of identity
she imagines a neutral mode of writing (existing)
photogrammetric parallax architecture
like veridical paradoxes,
congeries of the strange,
her margin notes and shadow expressions
cantos in the wilderness
she demilitarizes the language
scratching photographic emulsions to create
deep image poems, without passage
and inclined to doubt
enunciating aureate specimens
dreamscapes molded from the genome
endolethium enigmas of cryofixation
that freeze all fluid phases solid
ultra-rapid cooling stops
all motion and metabolic activity
initiating protocol that
counters the Leidenfrost Effect,
her emotive vapor blanket slips
diamond knife embedded
in a cryoultramictrotome
(bibliophile’s imaginative invention)
reasons away the horrors of imprisonment
nature of electrons allowing
an intimate picture of nature
in the half-light of her admiration
‘I have borne this poor starling
as a crest to my arms’
husk and kernel unite
unsaying every word
in indented continuations
cave paintings and charcoal outlines
of her same lamentation
all artifacts of the passion:
Kierkegaard’s desire to discover something
that thought itself cannot think
Chromapoetica 
soren can def challenge the thought…and even our best thoughts fall short…mind boggling verse anna…i like the textures toward the end…the husk, cave paintings and charcoal…she demilitarizes the language….liquid modernity, ha i like that turn of phrase….lots of refs here and spent some time looking up a few to catch the gist…intriguing verse…
Yes, he was describing the ultimate paradox. Liquid Modernity is a book by Zygmunt Bauman that takes a sociological overview of the state of globalization and the increasing fluid state of the immediate setting of life-politics and human togetherness to call for the rethinking of the concepts and cognitive frames used to narrate human individual experience. He contrasts it with the hard modernity of the past. Thanks so much for exploring the allusions and references; I always appreciate your feedback.
is sounds an interesting book we do need our ideas about economics, society, ecology to be entirely refactored imho. this world is breaking. we are responsible.
you are forever leaving me in awe of your talent for weaving the richest tapestries of word and image. “she wants out while everyone else wants in” … i heard this echoing throughout.
I continue to struggle in experimental pieces with the amount of density or richness I can get away with. I was in a wild mood when I wrote this and may at a later, tamer time rewrite it :). How wonderful you read three of my pieces today. I felt positively spoiled, thank you!
a labyrinth of canonical sources… I’ve been trapped in such space in the past. Demanding, like this poem. Completion, release, however is worth the effort.
Yes, sometimes it is necessary to reevaluate your art, its sources and experiments to make a next step. To come to terms with the ultimate paradox and act as if. Thank you Kim for this thought provoking comment.
Love this. Very cool adventure in philosophy and psychological states, backed with outstanding use of symbols and imagery. This most certainly has the feel of one of those rare poems one comes across, where the reader just knows, they could come back to this one and each time unwrapping another nugget of revelation. Fantastic all around.
Wow, you’ve made my week with this wonderful compliment, thank you!
i can see these birds in cages, individual people, whole communities, countries, shared commitments to human rights, species in shrinking cages of habitat, ultimately our planet is caged in broken assumptions about ownership and extraction.
i feel frustrated by a dea(r)th of useful ‘authoritative’ broadcast and the cacophony of navel lint and trivial furies that obfuscate collective human reasoning in shared media.
my lint: this week they sprayed herbicide on my park and i watch the arabesque charm of the willie wagtail dancing over the grasses looking for insects and hope the rain has made them safe to eat. we can grow grevilleas for honey eaters and have seed for parrots but it is hard to look out for the insect eating birds and lizards.
australia’s cages seem to press close, they aim to mine around the barrier reef. our thirsty country has 1000 new rice/cotton farms demanding more water from dying river systems. our politicians deny truth and play chicken with war. complicit in war crimes and torture.
it is also spring and beautiful. kids on bikes, snuffly dogs and especially trees. hope is a precious doubt. thankyou as always for a resoundingly resonant and mind expanding journey Anna.
You explicate so many important issues here and I agree with your concerns. ‘Hope is a precious doubt.’ your poetic mind in full bloom here. Spring arrives in all its glory. Thank you for plumbing some of its depths and themes. A metaphor that works for the individual and community, that mirrors ecology and experimental art/creative acts. Compassion seems at its weakest among the complicit.
I like many of the lines in this poem because it’s how I’ve been feeling, though I think not quite the same. Exploration, attempting to express something difficult. Wanting to get out, get air. Things seem to go one way and then another. Trapped in the mess. I read it earlier and then again just. It’s such a multi-dimensional poem. Difficult but intriguing to explore.
That exploration feels vital to me, to be in and of the world, to express in a new form. Yet we do get trapped in mental sets, routine, and as you say ‘the mess’ (absolutely!). I did intend it to be read many ways, to encapsulate many processes and ideas, to be potentially psychologically and/or globally oriented depending on the reading/reader. By building a foundation with a character from a novel, Maria, and Austen’s allusion to her character (Sterne’s starling) I think opened more possibilities in this postmodern experiment. Thank you very much for the reread and your interesting and important insights.
So, so deep, you put such a lot of creative effort into your work Anna. It shows.
Thank you, I’m happy to know the effort is apparent.
Hey anna
some V crisp poetic heights married with your fearless effort to render the BIG concepts . . .
you do manage to stoke the fires of experimentation with bravery and careful consideration,
contemplation and a clear passion for your subjects (Queen Monty of Experimentationville 😉 . . .
. . . topics 😀
and for all its craft and well worked ideas . . . this has got
the JUICE!
make me a Sir or chop off my head? 😀
Cheeky flattery will always get you knighthood(ery) :D. Though Queen Monty, being a dog, doesn’t have thumbs so she might accidentally chop off your head. This is sublime, thank you.
Oh, and I forgot to mention dead. A zombie dog queen may have an entirely different set of sensibilities.
the ultimate paradox…the starling that wants in why everyone else wants out… then the nod to kierkegaard…the leidenfrost effect..think i have to do some research as well…
I went a bit wild and wide on this one, it remains to be seen how valuable this experiment is.
Quite wonderful, rich and vivid.
Thank you, perhaps you have read Mansfield Park? I’m looking forward to your poem.
You leave me in awe all the time! 🙂
Ah sweet Ayala, you are a treasure :D.
This is wonderful! I love “unsaying every word”!
Thanks Jenny, I’ll be by to read yours soon; I had meetings all afternoon so I’m behind.
I love the conceptual exploration. My favorite image is:
“enunciating aureate specimens
dreamscapes molded from the genome
endolethium enigmas of cryofixation
that freeze all fluid phases solid”
If we are indeed moving to a more fluid intellectual framework it is a direct result of an increased ability of our race to reason. And I do tend to agree we do are moving to a more fluid state.
I apologize, your comment ended up in spam but is rescued now. I appreciate your feedback and recognition of purpose here. A fluid intellectual framework is far less constricting.
found myself immersed into the spirit of eloquence of leaning towards ancient and perenial thought of these great minds of the at once eternal and the perpetual with the simplicity/immensity of the starling – and am blown away Anna – another great one – Lib
How kind of you to say, see you soon :).
Your writing is always so intensely creative. The use of a bird that is so common in a concept that is so complicated….Brilliant.
Thanks Susie, I try to spice up my writing by experimenting on a regular basis.
You are forever expanding my vocabulary and knowledge base, Anna, weaving thought-provoking images. I admire your ability to tap into the ancient and the contemporary, merging the two. You, my friend, are an explorer in the world of word and thought.
I jokingly said to one reader last week I am reintroducing the English language one poem at a time :). Thank you Victoria, there’s a quote I love that says that you cannot discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. I try to keep it in mind when I sail away.
Wow, this is a poem of discovery… and cryoultramictrotome what a word… I have never come across this one… certainly an interesting journey.
Science and math seem to be full of those polysyllabic stunners.
wonderful wording… once again i am awestruck by your beautiful work
So lovely to see you again, thank you!
i have to confess i have no idea what this write is about…:(
Meaning and narrative are not always primary concerns (or available) in postmodern poetry, though I am sorry to hear that you are frustrated. Here the primary source of Maria in Mansfield Park helps indicate a direction but the poem does take imaginative and cognitive leaps from there. Very nice to meet you. I do not always write experimental poetry so perhaps on another visit you will find something more to your tastes.
she demilitarizes the language
scratching photographic emulsions to create
deep image poems, without passage
and inclined to doubt
This is awesome Anna! I isolated the above as I see it being the challenges of a poet. The language gets a boost with photos. This cleared the air in the poems. Nicely!
Hank
Yes, absolutely the challenges of a poet, thank you Hank!
Perplexities … trembling with sensitive humanity
My favorite fabulous phrase among many. Experimental or not, you send a deep message and challenge your readers to dive down into understanding.
Challenging readers is one of my favorite activities so it’s likely my blog should come with a warning label :). Thank you so much for the revisit and your kind words.
Hey Anna – I must confess that some of this is just too complex for me. I know that it is very well constructed, but it is really quite tightly squeezed, and I am not philosphically educated enough to catch it. But from the phrase of the starling on, I do a better job, and this part I found very beautiful. k.
Yes, the density issue is one I struggle with thank you for your honest feedback on that. I am heartened to hear you found beauty in the end :).
It’s all really interesting. For me, the blogging context is difficult as I am reading a lot and I also feel that I am (due to all kinds of other factors) losing my brain a bit these days – so I have a hard time following anything very complex (other ahem than my work!) You use quite arcane vocabulary and references very freely, and make rather sophisticated jumps. This is admirable, and one senses your drft and that it is actually extremely specific, but it is at a more intellectual level than I, at least, can take in in one go (and in that context.) I am being very honest now, but you may consider making the poems a bit shorter, given the nature of the your audience (including me). Because I think you have a lot included in each stanza, but it becomes hard to parse through a longer poem with this kind of intense and very intellectual compression. I think you sort of cheat yourself here, as you dont’ give each bit its due,and allow some shorter poems to stand on their own. This is just my thought – and honestly = if I were more intellectual, I would probably not have this issue. k.
These are helpful suggestions. I will give them careful consideration. I hope you will consider joining in Meeting the Bar tomorrow as it’s my first time hosting :). I think you will enjoy the subject.
i think it would be sad if your poetry was ‘soundbited’ to be like everything else.
i think we desperately need mental food with fibre and complexity.
I am working on a wild postmodern poem about Pegasus at the moment, I think you may enjoy it Janet :).
Abstract. Unlike Brian, I could not follow that allusions — I wish there were links at the bottom for a few of them. Though I have found that poetry bloggers rarely read links — I would. And it would help share so much of the poem.
So, as I said, Abstract. And I usually skip reading abstract poems with allusions that make it impenetrable – yet your writing (and the science, I must admit) drew me in and I read the damn thing three times — and even the comments — hoping for hints. I’ve only heard of Derrida, for example and know some of post-structuralism.
The science and line about soren were big catchers for me.
“desire to discover something that thought itself can not think”.
(e-mail contact)
I have been back and forth on the issue of providing notes or links. I have done both in the past. Here are some links that may help: http://digilib.gmu.edu:8080/dspace/html/1920/999/IcannotgetoutasthestarlingsaidMariasallusiontoSterne.html; http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/symposium.html; http://www.econ.tuwien.ac.at/lotto/papers/Kahneman2.pdf; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygmunt_Bauman; http://www.traveldoctoronline.net/cryofixation–cryosubstitution–and-immunoelectron-microscopy–potential-role-in-diagnostic-pathology-ODcyNzA2NQ==.htm; http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88v/chap900a.html. Thank you for the effort to engage.
Oh and another from the online dictionary of philosophy at Stanford (a wonderful free source and fun to explore): http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/derrida/