As soon as I stumbled across a line in an interview with BOMB magazine, I knew what I’d been trying to crystallize. Xie says, “Observing is never a passive absorption of visual stimuli. The eye amplifies and tames; it heightens and erases.”
I kept wondering how and why these poems landed the way they did, if many of them felt like lists. Observations. I think I’d been operating under the assumption that listing was not digesting, but it really, really is.
If we were to make meaning of every atom of stimuli that we encounter, our brains would fizzle and smoke into nothingness. What stands out is important. In Xie’s poetry, I trust the intuition of image.
I wanted to engage with her poetry via writing a poem of my own… I’ll admit it’s a bit of a challenge to not use images as a pivot for that inward reality, but here we go… There is a certain liberation AND constraint in allowing myself to just notice details that speak with a meaning I have not contrived from the start.
I kept wondering how and why these poems landed the way they did, if many of them felt like lists. Observations. I think I’d been operating under the assumption that listing was not digesting, but it really, really is.
If we were to make meaning of every atom of stimuli that we encounter, our brains would fizzle and smoke into nothingness. What stands out is important. In Xie’s poetry, I trust the intuition of image.
I wanted to engage with her poetry via writing a poem of my own… I’ll admit it’s a bit of a challenge to not use images as a pivot for that inward reality, but here we go… There is a certain liberation AND constraint in allowing myself to just notice details that speak with a meaning I have not contrived from the start.
Nourish
Chicken cutlets on the counter
It’s possible I’m projecting
plastic cutting boards
traffic passing
as myself in motion.
But here I am
an unwavering pool
of afternoons, garlic
and something sour
constantly edging
forgetting how a blade
finds the hand, a regular north star
how this streaked window
dazzles only at certain angles
Whaaaaat!! Wow, Hannah Jean not only is your poem a really good illustration of what you were writing about in your blog, but the poem is beautiful as well. I loved that you said, "I trust the intuition of image." So much of what is conveyed in Xie's poetry is said by seemingly unconnected imagery; single lines of observation or thought that the eye follows down the page while the brain draws connection and intuits imagery from the words. Sorry to quote you again but, Mind=Blown!
ReplyDeleteHannah Jane....
ReplyDeletefabulous
indeed....mind blown
Ditto the above, that "I trust the intuition of image" was a mic-drop line. Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem with us!!
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting response (and take on) how the images are used. They are so solid, and hit like a slide that takes a moment to change so our eye is overwhelmed. good response poem.
ReplyDeletee