…..Or how I learned to stop worrying about trying to catch stars.
Whether it’s Perry Como’s 1958 rendition of the Vance and Pockriss’ hit (They also wrote “Itsy Bitty Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” for context) or John Donne’s 1633 (in retrospect highly misogynistic-) poem, Men or Man have/has been fascinated with catching a falling star.
This feat has oft been employed as a poetic or literal device as a metaphor for the impossible.-You cannot catch one.
(In fact what we consider as falling stars are not stars at all ).
Today’s poem, the 2nd of Unreconciled Doors, is ” The Closed Hand”.
The title, as if often with my work, came last and I liked the idea of -Definite Article/Adjective/Noun- and keeping a title that was simple but also descriptive to the reader, in that, you have a visual image of what is going to be described to you in the work. It is also very difficult to form a fist whilst reading-try it with either hand or both at the same time and it will feel distinctly uncomfortable. (Perhaps, this is, as it is theorised, the clenching of the left fist is a recall aid for the right side of the brain and vice-versa!).
The first two words in the poem are “A fool”-I think here I was describing myself!, in the cosmic fool or idiot savant style of the word(Of course!).Think Loki, Cosmic Fool, Fool on the Hill type characters etc.
And what is the fool trying to do?. Well, he has succeeded in achieving the impossible -which most “fools” /clowns/jesters generally do in the end!- and has caught a falling star. His foolishness follows however as he “Tries to hide it from the sky”.
I loved the idea of the night sky going looking for a missing star and being unable to find it as some man, somewhere has gone and caught one and hidden it in his hand. Why?, we are not told.
The poem resolves itself in the last two lines with a “rule of thumb” and “blackened bloody hand” telling the fool he should “not have tried”.
On a deeper level, I think in re-reading this-You should not hide your light under a bushel is probably what my subconscious was trying to tell me and so, a short message to myself.Maybe also to let go, let go of control-The world is perfect as it is-do not try and change it or alter or any part of it-In a non linear model of existence, whatever is meant to happen will happen or has already happened. I also may have had the thoughts about squeezing coal to form diamonds- “like a diamond in the sky.
On a structural level, the poem is a simple but effective one in just four lines with basic ryhming and half-rhymes. It’s syllabic structure is a quite metronic- 10/6/10/6.
Unreconciled Doors is out now….
Put it in your pocket,
Algo
*Today’s featured image is from Nasa- an X-Ray view from their N.U.S.T.A.R. telescope of the “Hand of God” *
Unreconciled Doors was released in Kindle format this week for $€£ 0.99
If you like and if you can, having being delighted by this daily dose of dissonance, maybe Buy Me a Coffee please ,or even better, buy Unreconciled Doors, so you can read along with Behind the Lines!
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 