3 December 18 Through the Maze with Charles Simic

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them.

Charles Simic

Today’s poem comes to you from Charles Simic who knows his art, and as his quote above implies, understands that no matter how good the poet might be, a poem on paper doesn’t ever quite measure up to our human experience. 

What a poem this is! Talk about metaphors! (We’ve had a look at more than one of these before.) Mr. Simic’s poems are famous, partially because they are down-to-earth and accessible. They are, so to speak, an open book; however, his poetry is rife with technical form and discipline. 

This is truly a writers’ poem replete with writing terms and writerly attitudes. That’s one reason the “blank sheet of paper” is put forth so clearly.

THE WHITE LABYRINTH 

There is one waiting for you,
On every blank sheet of paper.
So, beware of the monster
Guarding it who’ll be invisible
As he comes charging at you.
Armed only with a pen.
And watch out for that girl
Who’ll come to your aid
With her quick mind and a ball of thread,
And lead you by the nose
Out of one maze into another.
Charles Simic
From New and Selected Poems (1962 – 2012)

Background:

For those of you who may be wondering why I am suddenly moving toward poets other than myself, and hopefully delighting you with some real professionals, and not an amateur like yours truly. Frankly, inspiration aside, writing one poem a week is heavy duty work, but more importantly, it’s time to bring new poet friends into the picture for your enjoyment. I promise I will only post poems that have been judged to be top-rate by critics and other poets. In the case of Charles Simic, we experience the work of a U.S. Poet Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Charles Simic was born in 1938 in Belgrade, Serbia; at fifteen, Charles moved with his mother to Paris, and then on to the United States to join his father. He attended New York University and the University of Chicago. Among many prestigious awards and recognitions, he received the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets for “outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry.”

Exploration 1: Let’s start with our old friend, the metaphor, one of the chief techniques in the poet’s toolbox. Truth to tell, as with some of my own work, this entire poem is replete with metaphors. In Simic’s poem, I challenge you to find a line that isn’t a metaphor! Well, possibly the first two lines wherein the poet can’t help but give us a hint to the poem’s mystery. Take your cue from the “blank sheet of paper,” and have fun identifying a few metaphors and who or what they represent; for example, “the monster,” “armed only with a pen,” and the “white labyrinth” itself, and why more than one labyrinth is suggested. Have at it, and have fun!

Exploration 2: What is “that girl” going to do with “a ball of thread.” Understand that she is a fickle individual who I wrote about in one of my previous poems some time ago. Can you identify her and/or what she represents? Or maybe who? Likewise, take a stab at identifying the “one waiting for you.”

Exploration 3: Based on this poem, what to you think Simic believes writing is all about?

Finally, I can’t resist sharing another one of Charles Simic’s poems which is quite seasonable just now, and with the autumn we just had would have been just as appropriate in late September.

COME WINTER

The mad and homeless take shelter

Against the cold weather

In tombs of the fabulously rich,

Where they huddle in the rags

And make themselves scarce only

When a hearse comes along

Bringing the smell of freshly-cut roses

And a drove of flunkies

With snow on their black shoulders

In a hurry to lower the heavy coffin

So it can go to hell on Satan’s luxury

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine

. . . and for anyone who writes poetry, here is Simic’s Advice “On Writing Poetry”

A few things to keep in mind while sitting down to write a poem:

1. Don't tell the readers what they already know about life.

2. Don't assume you're the only one in the world who suffers.

3. Some of the greatest poems in the language are sonnets and poems not many lines longer than that, so don't overwrite.

4. The use of images, similes and metaphors make poems concise. Close your eyes, and let your imagination tell you what to do.

5. Say the words you are writing aloud and let your ear decide what word comes next.

6. What you are writing down is a draft that will need additional tinkering, perhaps many months, and even years of tinkering.

7. Remember, a poem is a time machine you are constructing, a vehicle that will allow someone to travel in their own mind, so don't be surprised if it takes a while to get all its engine parts properly working.

Books of poetry by Charles Simic

What the Grass Says (1967)

Somewhere among Us a Stone is Taking Notes (1969)

Dismantling the Silence (1971)

White (1972)

Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk (1974)

Biography and a Lament (1976)

Charon's Cosmology (1977)

Brooms: Selected Poems (1978)

School for Dark Thoughts (1978)

Classic Ballroom Dances (1980)

Austerities (1982)

Weather Forecast for Utopia and Vicinity (1983)

Selected Poems, 1963-1983 (1985)

Unending Blues (1986)

Nine Poems (1989)

The World Doesn't End (1989)

The Book of Gods and Devils (1990)

Hotel Insomnia, Harcourt (1992)

A Wedding in Hell: Poems (1994)

Frightening Toys (1995)

Walking the Black Cat: Poems (1996)

Jackstraws: Poems (1999)

Selected Early Poems (2000)

Night Picnic (2001)

The Voice at 3:00 A.M.: Selected Late and New Poems (2003)

Aunt Lettuce, I Want to Peek under Your Skirt (2005)

My Noiseless Entourage (2005)

60 Poems (2008)

That Little Something (2008)

Master of Disguises (2010)

New and Selected Poems: 1962-2012 (2013 The Lunatic (2015)

Your Monday Poet, Jack Pine Savage