12 Feb 18 Serpent Saint

I beg your forgiveness for posting one day early. Monday is my appointed day. Yet, as it happens, I will be away from my computer the entire day, and didn't want to keep you waiting until Tuesday. JPS

                                            * * * * * * * * * * *

Be honest. How many of you actually read last week’s poem, “And Now”? Or did you discover that the post was about poetry and quickly look away, turning your attention to more familiar forms of writing. I know. I know. Somewhere in your early education, poetry was forced upon you by some well-meaning English teacher who despite an academic degree in the subject area, had no idea how to make verse accessible or pleasurable to you. Still, I know some of you are closet poetry readers. So, onward to our second adventure in the art of the poem.

Metaphor is one of the premiere tools of the poet, as well as authors of all stripes. A metaphor refers to the meaning or identity ascribed to one subject by way of another. In a metaphor, one subject is implied to be another so as to draw a comparison between their similarities and shared traits. That’s the definition, but examples make this device clearer: “Juliet is the sun” and “All the world’s a stage” (Shakespeare), the curtain of night, the rosy fingers of dawn, and so on and so on. Get the idea?

I mention metaphor this week because the selected poem by yours truly is filled with metaphors; in fact, the whole poem is one, big metaphor. What does that mean for the poetry reader? Turn on your headlamp and carry a pick axe into the cave of interpretations to carve out the diamonds of meaning. Goodness! There they are: four metaphors in the previous sentence. By nature, humans like to make comparisons and metaphors are a great help in doing so. Once you get started, it will be hard to turn them off.

I’ll offer one trick of the trade: Don’t look for the metaphors on the first, or even second reading. Sure, they may present themselves quite clearly right away. Let them be. Then, once you have a feel for the poem’s mood and emotional tone, have fun finding as many metaphors as you can. This poem is perfect for metaphor hunting.

As will be my habit, below the poem, I will give some background on where the poem came from, and some explorations that are meant to help you go into the jungle to fetch a diamond out. (More metaphors, this one from the drama, Death of a Salesman which has nothing to do with the poem below. 

This week’s poem is titled,

 “Serpent Saint.”

Starting awake after abundant years laced with nightshade while she slept

Charmed years rush together bending light into inflected rainbows

rising between hazy slivers of dream and waking thick with shadow

Ghosts of haunted seasons flown far away have loosed

their leaves and petals, cluttered and confused

circling her feet covering gold and silver offerings to a sleeping marble saint

Below her, coiled amid metallic brightness, a twisting shape with copper scales laid close

atop one another like a hundred lovers with no space or will to breathe

One long sinuous spiral sculpting jagged memories

Two scents bloom - one rings serpent’s head. The other standing above the snake

permits wasted requiems and dried sashays hung long ago and unremembered around the petrified holy neck that holds the sainted head

Reptile and blossom aromas swirl up shriveled nose, wilted mouth, abated breath

Yet, to bless flown years and faded flowers, the marble figure blinks a tear

Beneath, serpent nostrils flare and fill with smoking sparks of snake

as her foot steps, pathing forward, pressing skull of serpent saint

Background: This poem was written following what has been called “a dark night of the soul”; a time of recovery and re-emergence. Depression plays no small part in the genesis of these verses. Catholic symbols are used to give the poem an air of antiquity and long-held ritual, plus a sniff of verity.

The list of clues below are more than usual; however, with all the metaphors in the poem, I’m simply trying to be helpful.

Clue #1: Beyond the obvious images of a statue and a snake, who or what do these figures represent?

Exploration #1: What is happening in the first stanza regarding sleep and wakening? What questions arise for you as you are introduced to “the sleeping marble saint”?

Exploration #2: How do the words, “Ghosts of seasons flown far away,” add to understanding what the main character (the “statue”) has gone through?”

Exploration #3: In the third stanza, we are introduced to the other main character in the poem. Did you immediately know that a serpent was being described through metaphor? No problem if not. What thoughts or images do come to mind?

Exploration #4: Did you experience any sensory impact related to the “two scents,” and how does one (or two) of the smells relate to the “dried sashays” in the next line?

Exploration #5: How can a statue “blink a tear”?

Exploration # 6: What is the meaning of the final metaphor: “pressing skull of serpent snake”?

Finally, count up the number of metaphors you found. The person who finds the most gets to be the central figure in a forthcoming poem. Other comments and interpretations welcome, and will receive a response.

Don’t be scared. It’s only poetry and you won’t get snake-bit.

Jack Pine (Poet) Savage