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Framing
A tree at
the far left, flush
against the frame
It was centered
when I saw it
first. I know this
I insist, a trick
of increments. Now
this defamation by
displacement in a shifted frame.
Radical tree.
Suspect. Dismissible.
Invisible.
Last edited by Christine98, May/15/2010, 10:27 am
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May/13/2010, 10:51 am
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Re: Framing
Chris-
I like this poem. I don't know if I get your intention, but it leaves me feeling as I did when I was 10: an outcast. In a sense I see both the tree and the poet as outcasts.
-s
(p.s. not sure whey I said 10....perhaps that was the height of my outcastness)
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May/16/2010, 2:46 pm
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Re: Framing
Hi Chris,
On the second read through it came to me that this could be a description of what the right has done to Obama: reframed him from the center, or there abouts, to the far, radical left. Suspect, dismissible. (And dangerous.) Invisible as in Ellison's invisible man? Who Obama is gets lost as the defamation takes over and becomes the focus. So, this could be about Obama, specifically, or about the process of spin, or re/framing generally. (I saw a couple of reports this week about the Texas textbook committee rewriting social studies texts that this process could apply to as well.) Or this poem can be read more personally as Shab suggests.
Well done, Chris. I hope you submit this to the site that likes to post poems which are news related. You know--the one that has taken a few of your poems in the past.
Last edited by Katlin, May/16/2010, 4:01 pm
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May/16/2010, 3:59 pm
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Re: Framing
Thanks Shab and welcome back. If 10 was the peak of your "outcastness," I hope you've been feeling less outcast ever since. You're certainly integral to this place.
Chris
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May/16/2010, 4:02 pm
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Re: Framing
Hi Kat,
Yeah, I was thinking about the political process of what they call "framing" when I started--then I saw there was also something personal in it.
Obama is a perfect example of the political aspect. Maddening, isn't it?
Chris
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May/16/2010, 4:07 pm
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Re: Framing
Chrisfriend, I can't be sure what the poem is after. I can say that with first reading even I was loving, responding to, the rationality of it. And this especially tickled me: "a trick / of increments..." Why does that tickle me so? Why does it resonate? Why does it strike me as a big truth? I don't know, but it does.
I notice the poem gives itself over to line rhythm and internal rhyme. Something kind of new for you, isn't it?
Keep rereading it. This is actually a poem. A stand up, stand alone poem. Ending tercet amounting to a political stand. Akmahtova wrote this way.
Tere
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May/22/2010, 10:54 pm
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Re: Framing
Thanks Tere,
This is my response to the latest Guardian challenge/competition. Can't remember the name of the poet/judge (Brownjohn?) Anyway the exercise involved envisioning an empty frame, a description of some image within the frame and a poetic riff on same.
My motivation was political but something personal found its way in. Don't know about line rhythm and internal rhyme; seems like I've always been working with that stuff without knowing what to call it; I am utterly un-schooled. I've been thinking of re-naming it, "Framed," would that be too heavy handed?
Thanks for your response, Tere. I've been losing confidence in my writing lately, so it means even more than usual.
Chris
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May/23/2010, 9:47 am
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Re: Framing
Hi, Christine,
I really liked this. It seems to me to be about the mind of an artist actually doing some framing. Looks like there was a goof-up, but the artist reacts as if it's the tree's fault, which a real artist would of course do. Spooky tree, moving around on me that way!
My only nit is that it's a heckuva goofup if the tree was originally in the middle!
Thanks for the posting,
Auto
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May/23/2010, 5:19 pm
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Re: Framing
hey Auto,
So that's what real artists do. All this time I thought there was something perverse about trees.
Chris
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May/23/2010, 6:20 pm
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Re: Framing
Coming back to your poem. I can't do it the way you do, Chris. I've read Kat poems and Auto poems, when she was a member I read Pat Jones poems to do it this way. I can't do it this way.
This is a measure of poetry the likes of which I am not sure I can measure up to. This thing of yours doesn't just resonate. It !@#$ pierces my body.
I need to think on this. Your poem may have just shifted axial thinking.
Tere
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May/24/2010, 12:03 am
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