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Meetings Elizabeth Woody - Meaning of poem

 

Line-by-Line Meaning

  1. "Twice on other travels a wolf stood on the periphery of lamplight."

    • This suggests brief, fleeting encounters with something wild, mysterious, or primal. The wolf remains just out of reach, symbolizing the untamed forces of nature or intuition that linger at the edge of human awareness.
  2. "Our eyes intensified in the silent distance between sanctity."

    • The “silent distance” suggests a reverent, almost sacred moment of recognition or connection with the wolf. It reflects a heightened awareness, a spiritual or emotional intensity arising from the encounter.
  3. "There is one who appreciates second hand revelations of wolves."

    • Some understand the essence of wolves not through direct experience but through stories, observations, or interpretations. It hints at the mediated ways people connect to nature or wisdom.

  1. "Sparrow hawk waves fast hinges of small capture in its apex of watch."

    • The sparrow hawk, a swift predator, symbolizes focus and precision. The "fast hinges" may describe its quick movements during a hunt, reflecting sharp, decisive actions.
  2. "Where are the absent coyotes of Willamina?"

    • This line hints at a missing element of balance or presence in the ecosystem of Willamina, possibly representing disruption or absence of natural rhythms.
  3. "Winter-sleepy mice are slow."

    • This evokes the lethargy of winter, where even prey like mice, often quick and alert, are subdued by the cold. It symbolizes the slowing down of life during harsh times.

  1. "The salmon pass the fishers’ drift into deadline."

    • Salmon, driven by instinct, swim past fishing nets and towards their destined spawning grounds, described as a “deadline.” It captures the tension between survival and inevitable mortality.
  2. "The count is a button pushed in the rapture of instinctual homing."

    • This refers to the tracking or counting of salmon during their migration, emphasizing their relentless drive to return home, guided by instinct rather than reason.
  3. "An eye squint records the shrapnel glimpses of Chinook."

    • Observers catch fragmented, fleeting views of Chinook salmon as they move quickly, like shrapnel, through the water. The imagery suggests a mix of awe and transience.

  1. "Our river’s low, as manly winds blur the edges of inland clouds."

    • The river’s low level may symbolize scarcity or decline, while "manly winds" suggests strength and force that disrupts the soft, ephemeral clouds.
  2. "Aspiring rain is a sleepy feminine whisper."

    • Rain is personified as feminine and gentle, contrasting with the masculine winds, creating a balance of force and nurture in nature’s interplay.
  3. "Grasses sweep patterns of mock celestial visitations."

    • The swaying of grasses in the wind is likened to imprints of stars or celestial beings, offering a terrestrial mimicry of the heavens.

  1. "Otter pelts feel soothingly moist in the rich depth of velvety pelage."

    • This tactile description emphasizes the luxurious, primal connection to the otter’s fur, symbolizing richness and life’s abundance.
  2. "Small bare edged ears are symbolic of ocean’s chill."

    • The otter’s small ears suggest adaptation to the harsh cold of its oceanic habitat, reflecting resilience in the face of natural challenges.
  3. "One secret otter strip is owned for future weaving."

    • This suggests preserving something valuable (perhaps cultural or symbolic) for future use, weaving it into a greater narrative or purpose.

  1. "Otter woven into a Ravenstail robe is royal and tide riddled."

    • The Ravenstail robe, a traditional weaving style, incorporates otter fur, symbolizing heritage, royalty, and connection to the sea’s ebb and flow.
  2. "The otter dances on prominent lineage hidden through survival."

    • The otter embodies a legacy of survival, its story interwoven with natural and cultural continuity.
  3. "Copper light resumes ceremony from absence to embrace our shoulders."

    • The copper light (possibly sunrise or sunset) symbolizes renewal and reconnection, embracing the observer in a ceremonial return to balance or tradition.

Overall Themes



  • Nature's Rhythms: The passage deeply reflects the cycles of nature, survival, and instinct.
  • Human Connection: It captures the reverence humans feel for natural elements, even as they are distanced from them.
  • Cultural Legacy: The mention of weaving and ceremonies hints at cultural practices rooted in nature, preserving stories and identity.




--------------------------------------

Twice on other travels a wolf stood on the periphery of lamplight.
Our eyes intensified in the silent distance between sanctity.
There is one who appreciates second hand revelations of wolves.

Sparrow hawk waves fast hinges of small capture in its apex of watch.
Where are the absent coyotes of Willamina?
Winter-sleepy mice are slow.

The salmon pass the fishers’ drift into deadline.
The count is a button pushed in the rapture of instinctual homing.
An eye squint records the shrapnel glimpses of Chinook.

Our river’s low, as manly winds blur the edges of inland clouds.
Aspiring rain is a sleepy feminine whisper.
Grasses sweep patterns of mock celestial visitations.

Otter pelts feel soothingly moist in the rich depth of velvety pelage
Small bare edged ears are symbolic of ocean’s chill.
One secret otter strip is owned for future weaving.

Otter woven into a Ravenstail robe is royal and tide riddled.
The otter dances on prominent lineage hidden through survival.
Copper light resumes ceremony from absence to embrace our shoulders.

meaning of poem: Miscarriage Christine Stewart-Nuñez

 This poem appears to be a meditation on loss, the fragility of dreams, and the intimate pain that comes with realizing something you created, held dear, or once desired has dissolved or become unreachable. Here’s a deeper look into its imagery and themes:

Line-by-Line Analysis:

  1. "Gauzy film between / evergreens is a web"
    The "gauzy film" evokes something delicate and ethereal, like a spider's web, barely visible and suspended between the trees. This web is immediately connected with "loss," setting a reflective, melancholy tone. The web here could symbolize the thin, fragile threads of hope, memory, or connection that hang between experiences or people.

  2. "of loss. Get closer. Reach / to touch the shimmering"
    These lines encourage the reader to approach and try to touch this "web" of loss, reflecting the human impulse to reach for what we’ve lost or to hold on to memories. The "shimmering" aspect of the web emphasizes its beauty but also its fleeting nature, capturing how our yearnings and memories often appear almost tangible but vanish when we try to grasp them.

  3. "gossamer and your finger / pushes through."
    The gossamer is fragile, and when touched, it simply gives way. This moment of realization—where the attempt to reach something meaningful or beautiful results in its disintegration—reflects the elusiveness of past dreams, memories, or desires. It's a reminder that some things are beyond our control, no matter how much we reach for them.

  4. "Remember / filling that space with desire?"
    Here, the poet invites introspection, reminding the speaker (and perhaps the reader) of past hopes or dreams that once filled this now-empty space. This line suggests that there was once a deep longing or an intense desire connected to this intangible web, but now it is hollow, a shadow of what once was.

  5. "Someone else might grieve / the spider who abandoned / this home; others grow anxious"
    The spider, as the creator of the web, represents someone who may have once invested in this place or idea but has since left. The grief for the abandoned spider can reflect empathy or sadness for those who move on or lose something precious. Meanwhile, the others who "grow anxious" show a contrasting reaction, perhaps worrying about how the next inevitable force—a deer, symbolizing nature’s unpredictability—will disrupt it.

  6. "waiting for a deer’s walk / to wreck it. But you—"
    The deer here could symbolize an innocent, powerful force that doesn’t mean to destroy but will inevitably trample over fragile things. This suggests how dreams, memories, or connections can be destroyed by forces beyond our control, whether by time or by unintentional actions of others.

  7. "you grieve the net of thought / spun inside your own womb:"
    This line turns inward, suggesting that the web represents something intensely personal—thoughts, dreams, ideas, or even hopes nurtured and cherished deeply within oneself, like a mother carries life within her womb. "Grieving the net of thought" speaks to the pain of watching something you’ve put so much into slowly unravel or fail to materialize.

  8. "intricate and glossy and strong."
    The final line honors the strength, beauty, and complexity of this "net of thought." Even as it is something fragile and perhaps abandoned or broken, it is still admired for its intricacy and resilience.

Themes and Interpretation:

The poem’s primary themes revolve around loss, memory, fragility, and the deeply personal nature of creation. There’s a sense of mourning for things abandoned, whether they’re physical structures (like the spider’s web) or internal constructs (like cherished ideas or desires). The poem suggests that personal dreams and thoughts are intricate but delicate, subject to forces that may break them down despite our best efforts to preserve them.

The web could also represent how thoughts, ambitions, or plans weave together within us. We often nurture these dreams in a way that makes them feel vital and real, only to face the reality that they might remain unfulfilled, abandoned, or dissolved, either by our own hand or by external forces. In this way, the poem speaks to a universal experience: the vulnerability of hopes and the quiet, complex grief we hold for what might have been.


============================

Gauzy film between
evergreens is a web

of loss. Get closer. Reach
to touch the shimmering

gossamer and your finger
pushes through. Remember

filling that space with desire?
Someone else might grieve

the spider who abandoned
this home; others grow anxious

waiting for a deer’s walk
to wreck it. But you—

you grieve the net of thought
spun inside your own womb:

intricate and glossy and strong.



meaning of the poem : Legacy By Ted Kooser


This poem speaks to the poet’s deep sense of legacy, family, and the yearning for remembrance. The speaker has dedicated a lifetime—"seventy years"—crafting poems that preserve the lives of their family members. By capturing vivid, intimate scenes of relatives in daily acts of work and creation, the poet hopes to sustain their presence and give readers a glimpse into the essence of these people, as though they were characters in the readers' own lives.

The lines "to flesh out in evocative detail my parents, / my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts" illustrate a deliberate and heartfelt attempt to immortalize loved ones. Knowing they will one day pass, the poet seeks to ensure that, in their absence, the poems alone will carry on the family's legacy. There’s a humble acceptance that while true immortality may be elusive, the poet's family might at least "enjoy… a few more good years in the light."

In the second half, the poem shifts into a series of specific memories, tender and vivid: the poet's grandfather patching a tire, his brother weaving a rug, his mother sewing, his father handling brocade. These scenes aren't grand or heroic but evoke a warm intimacy, showcasing ordinary lives that were nonetheless rich with purpose and care. These people are framed in such detailed, loving ways that they feel alive and tangible, even as we recognize that they only persist in memory and poetry.

Finally, there’s a gesture of generosity in the poem's closing image, inviting the reader to draw open the draperies that this family has lovingly crafted, "to see on your lawn / Cousin Eunice Morarend playing her accordion." This moment of music and presence breaks the boundary between past and present, family and stranger, as if to say that the poet's family could be anyone’s family, that their lives are a shared legacy open for others to enjoy.

Overall, this poem is a poignant meditation on memory, art, and the poet’s hope to grant loved ones a form of continuity through the power of words and shared human experience.


----------------------------------- 




 I have spent seventy years trying to persuade you, to manipulate you with the poems I’ve written, to remember my people as if they’d been yours— to flesh out in evocative detail my parents, my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts— knowing that one day I’ll be gone, and without me to remember them, the poems I’ve written will have to go it alone. I owe my people so much, and I want them to enjoy—if not immortality—a few more good years in the light, 

my grandfather patching a tire for a quarter, his brother weaving a rag rug on his sun porch, my mother at her humming sewing machine, my father un-thumping a bolt of brocade, measuring for new draperies. 

Perhaps they were for you, to draw open and see on your lawn Cousin Eunice Morarend playing her accordion.

Interpretation of At the Mid Hour of Night By Thomas Moore

This poem reflects themes of love, memory, and longing, expressed through a romantic and ethereal lens. 

Here's a detailed explanation:

First Stanza:

  • "At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly"
    The narrator describes a moment of deep emotional sorrow, symbolized by the "mid hour of night," a time often associated with solitude and contemplation. The "weeping stars" evoke a sense of sadness or mourning, suggesting that even the stars are in grief.

  • "To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;"
    The narrator recalls a specific, cherished place ("lone valley"), a memory of happier times when the beloved's eyes shone with vitality, symbolizing the warmth of life and love in the past.

  • "And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air, To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,"
    The speaker wonders whether spirits, after death, can return to revisit places of happiness. The thought of the beloved returning in spirit to that special place gives the speaker comfort and hope.

  • "And tell me our love is remembered, even in the sky."
    The narrator hopes that their love will be remembered by the beloved, even beyond death, symbolized by the "sky," which represents the realm of the afterlife or the heavens.

Second Stanza:

  • "Then I sing the wild song ’twas once such pleasure to hear!"
    The speaker refers to a song they used to sing with the beloved, a "wild song" that brought them both joy in the past. The song symbolizes the harmony and unity they once shared.

  • "When our voices commingling breathed, like one, on the ear;"
    The merging of their voices is a metaphor for the closeness and unity of their relationship, as if they were one person in spirit and sound, their connection complete.

  • "And, as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls,"
    The narrator's mournful prayer or song [orison- prayer] is echoed back through the valley, a symbol of how the past reverberates in the present. The Echo here represents a faint reflection of what was once a full, living experience.

  • "I think, oh my love! ’tis thy voice from the Kingdom of Souls, Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear."
    The narrator imagines that the voice of the beloved, now in the afterlife ("Kingdom of Souls"), is responding to the song. The faintness of the echo suggests that, although the beloved is gone, their presence and love continue to resonate, though in a more distant, less tangible way.

Overall Theme:

The poem expresses a deep sense of loss and yearning for a loved one who has passed away. The speaker believes that love transcends death, imagining that even in the afterlife, the spirit of their beloved would return to revisit the memories they shared. The echo of their love is felt in the song, which becomes a vehicle for the communication between the living and the dead, reflecting on the enduring nature of love even after physical separation. The sky, the echoes, and the distant song all symbolize how the connection endures beyond the physical realm, albeit in a quieter, more elusive form.


------------------

At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I fly
To the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;
And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of air,
To revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me there,
And tell me our love is remembered, even in the sky.

Then I sing the wild song ’twas once such pleasure to hear!
When our voices commingling breathed, like one, on the ear;
And, as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls,
I think, oh my love! ’tis thy voice from the Kingdom of Souls,
Faintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.



How to Make a Movie Like Don (1978)


Take these scripts of the movies in a grinder. And voila you are a Salim Javed! 

  1. Mr. India (1961)
  2. Salaam Memsahab (1961)
  3. China Town (1962)
  4. An Evening in Paris (1967)
  5. Naseehat (1960s, approximate based on context)
  6. Kaalicharan (1976)
  7. Chhailla Babu (1977)
  8. The Double Man (Hollywood film)

Each of these films seems to revolve around themes of mistaken identity, double roles, or undercover missions, similar to Don’s storyline.