.JPG)
The space … makes addicts of us all.
Obsession is the only cement
Can infill the difference between
The amount I can theory
And the truth that came/went,
Small and marvelous (
a hundred maybes flowering
In the space between
the chase … and the
devouring:
I'd like to have you,
real as you are,
but can't
stop you from may-
being a
monster ...
and
a
star )
.
* Thanks David (Earth & wayfarers), Julie P. (star creatures & planet gods), and Caitlin (a smile – with Venus in its tooth) for making this collage full.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is very interesting, I like the structure you used for the words because it kind of mimics the "space" disintegrating and becoming smaller and smaller. I think the speaker is trying to express his conflicted state for a beloved person, but I may be wrong of course. I'm thinking the addiction to space is brought to a dying end as the poem comes to an end and each line gets shorter, or maybe the shorter lines represent the speaker coming closer to his beloved person and the space between them getting smaller as his obsession grows? I'm not really sure
ReplyDeleteBriana S.
The shape was an afterthought - just some sculpting I did to reward myself as I posted it (apparently a distraction).
DeleteThe words mean more.
I don't think of it as disintegrating, downward ... more as expanding, skyward.
As a graduating high school student uncertain of his prospects even for this summer, I can't help but identify with your presentation of "a hundred maybes". To be fair, your poem describes it to be more organic and less unnerving than uncertainty seems to be in my own life. Nonetheless--and I hope I'm not grossly misinterpreting your work here--I find the the parallels between vast, expansive, awesome space and the horde of possibilities before each of us to be very natural and universally accurate.
ReplyDeleteAbove all, thank you for the poem.
Yuan
More organic? Less unnerving? (are your dreams for summer made of silicon? more stressful than being in the limbo between liking someone and knowing if they like you?) You poor boy.
DeleteRun out into the sun - the days will sort themselves out.
If it is the space that makes us addicts, and addicts are of consequence of obsession, but obsession is what grounds us, a simultaneous paradox is implied. Was this intentional?
ReplyDeleteAlso:
Is obsession something that you get lost into, or something you commit to
is it a matter of order?
first your interest commit you to something and then you lose yourself within it?
Thanks for the thought provocation, I VERY much enjoyed your work!
Kevin M.
Obsession doesn't ground us - obsession is a cycle that fills up our spacey minds when there's not enough real ground to think about.
DeleteWe get lost in it; it's a poor substitution for ground.
(If you're feeling obsessed, go out and inundate yourself with reality - that influx of perspective is the best medicine. So I have found it, anyway.)
To the poet:
ReplyDeleteIf I am correct, this space that you are referring to is the metaphorical, and frustrating, gap between what is guessed (of course within reason) and what is known as fact. What I think your stance on this “gap” is can be shifted, deepened, and tightened depending on the strength of attention given to finding what is right or wrong, this “obsession”. This can be related to any number of things in life- knowledge, relationships, security, happiness, etc. But I think this obsession thing, whatever it may be in our lives, is deeply rooted with the insecurities of mankind. There will always be “the space” which is why there will always be obsession. People are obsessed with the idea of being happy, although there is no Merriam-Webster definition or cookbook for anyone to abide by. We shuffle through a world full of theories, trying everything to fill the gap or at least tape the edges together; drugs, sports, food, love are what in your words “make addicts of us all” and make up our daily obsessions. This omnipotent and mysterious “space” that you so eloquently describe, drives the world into action and the madness that it is.
As well as this you also dare to question the validity and consistency of what is known/true. It seems to me that you describe truth itself as a maybe- a universal goal of man that may turn out to have contradicting and unsure results. Perhaps you are implying that nothing is black and white, at the end of the gap. The truth that “came/went”, comes and goes, and of course is never stagnant for too long and, God forbid, STOP the moving world! Perhaps this space is a necessary entity? And that maybe addiction and obsession are not entirely bad?
Thank you so much for your thoughts- VERY interesting work!!
Stephanie S.
Space is inevitable - there's nothing we're ALWAYS around.
DeleteIn fact, WE're not always around (every dreamless sleep: 6-8 hours of 'not-around').
And yeah, I think obsession will always be present just because peoples' brains are so voluminous and intrinsically, powerfully, actively imaginative.
Since it's innate, I wouldn't call it "bad" (how self-loathing to judge one's nature), but it is something to be mastered: imagination should thrive ... but not overrun our deferential awareness of reality - of which we see only a part. The rest is, as the Cohen brothers said in A SERIOUS MAN(2009), to "Accept the mystery."
I love how you juxtapose the speaker's mortal 'obsession' for his love with the symbol for space surrounding himself. Some thoughts came to my mind after reading this and letting it sink in a bit.
ReplyDeleteOften in this infinite range of things, thoughts and ideas it can be easy to cling to our obsessions, yet the speaker chooses to accept the boundless nature of the universe instead of grasping dearly to his fears and expectations.
I also found the picture, (and I hope my guess somewhat on point) to a mixture of what appears to be the conscious reality of the everyday urban man mixed with the infinitesimal largeness of the universe. If this theory is correct, the metaphorical 'space' detailed in the poem is a ubiquitous one and the speaker's realization of the difference between his spaces and his obsession is considered a moment of clarity.
I feel that in life the search for answer and meaning is operated upon by both society and our own desires, negating and closing off any real meaning. To truly understand our predicament and begin the quest for true purpose, our speaker (in both the poem and the accompanying picture) looks to the sky. Only within the acceptance of life's mysterious and illogical forces can he find an answer.
Joe Luck
"... the conscious reality of the everyday urban man mixed with the infinitesimal largeness of the universe."
Delete(translated)----> "... the self-aware reality of city-dwelling people + the extremely small largeness of space" ?
"...in life the search for answer and meaning is operated upon by both society and our own desires, negating and closing off any real meaning."
?
I have-little-to-no idea what you are talking about. I guess that's my fair karma for writing poetry. I meant for this poem to be a little thing: a man thinking about a woman, trying to accept the fact that he can never know everything about her ... simply so he can stop obsessing over all the wonderful (or horrible) things that she MIGHT be.
Sorry about the awful use of vocabulary earlier. I guess what I was trying to say was that I appreciated the speaker's "moment" where he realizes that he simply has to accept his situation instead of defining every little obsession that he has.
DeletePeople often try to find a grander truth or meaning in life and define every little bit in order to derive purpose. The speaker's ability to accept his own inner reality allows him to stop looking for the meaning behind a love that is not logical or permanent.
That's true, Joe -- dreaming sense onto mysterious things is a natural impulse of the human brain. ... which is not to say we SHOULDN'T do it, just that we should be cognizant of the fact that we are imagining, and all the imagining in the world cannot shed light on the vast darkness in our understandings.
DeleteEven though we think we might know everything about a loved one, there is always a sense of mystery. We can never truly know everything there is about a person, it is simply not possible, so it is acceptable to stop obsessing about it. The speaker in the poem is obsessed with learning every minute detail about this girl. He cannot bear the unknown. His desire to learn about this girl is “the chase and the devouring.” To the speaker, his love for the girl is the most important thing happening in his life at the moment. He must focus on something because “the space makes addicts of us all.” When we are alone with our thoughts, we tend to obsess over the little things, like the “hundred maybes flowering in the space.” The idea of uncertainty causes people to obsess over things until they have figured out the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWe all want to be closer to something - to fill the gap of space we all try to un-familiarize ourselves with. We are dependent beings, each creating our own form of cement to harden our voids. The space is full of unsurety and ambiguity, that is both awing and chilling simultaneously, leaving us both excited and confused. This poem conveys the safety mechanisms we fabricate for ourselves in absence of a solid ground to set our feet upon. A clash between fantasy and reality, one is often lost between their own creations of security and the real world around them.
ReplyDeleteThe collage is also very interesting, as it appears the emptiest one I’ve seen on your blog (the most open space). You quite literally include images from outer space, emphasizing the infinite nature of space in our world (and out of our world); nothing is constantly present and everything is separated by something. As the natural setting fades to the blackness and nothingness of outer space, and the dim sky gives way to constellations, the image captures this sense of reality vs. fabrication, and the space between all things as we know it.
For me personally, this makes me reflect on the space between my own self - who am I? What have I made myself out to be? Why do I feel disconnected from my true self in certain occasions? I think we all need to realize not only the space that’s naturally present, but the space that we also create for ourselves when we don’t have any extra concrete to fill it.
You always have the "concrete" available to fill your own space -- that's one gap you don't have to accept as a permanent given in this life.
DeleteFigure yourself out, Jimmy -- you have fuller access than does anyone else. And the more you figure out, the closer you can let others come to you.
I think the subject matter of this poem is something everyone can relate to, the expectations we have for something and the reality of it. I love how this in between state of expectation vs. reality is described as “maybes.” Sometimes the chase is better than the end result, because unfortunately, sometimes what we hoped something/someone would be just isn’t. I’ve done it before, built a version of someone I thought I knew up in my head only to be let down by reality. The time between wanting to know someone and actually knowing them is exhilarating, and hearing it compared to an addiction rings true to me. Imagination tends to take over and set us up for disappointment, but we still remain hopeful the next time around. Even though our tendency to obsess and imagine someone in an amazing way and be disappointed when we discover their true nature is a bit of a bummer, the poem ends on what to me is a positive note, implying that we can’t control what other people are and we have to accept that, which is a nice thought to keep in mind when we might struggle to accept the true version of someone and not our own.
ReplyDeleteThere's a theme to the poems you respond to ... your vested interest in learning to see, to accept, and to find the reality of life's phenomena will serve you well in the long-run, I promise you:
DeleteIt's the tenacity of hopes and dreams in the face of conflicting evidence that leads to rash actions and eventual heart-aches (that progression is a common thread in the stories of ex-visionary misanthropes, denial-bound divorcees, delusion-buoyed fame-hopefuls and plastic surgery addicts, etc.). Staying humble and embracing the small passing beauty of things is a laudable way to pursue and experience life.
The first line, “The space...is what makes addicts of us all” really caught my attention and made me want to continue reading. I found it interesting how you included the ellipses to mimic space. The line also made me think and realize that we are uncomfortable with space and the “hundred maybes.” Obsession truly is the only thing that can fill this void. We create expectations for people, places, things, because of this concept of the “unknown” that we are so uncomfortable with. Our imaginations are constantly working to fill the space. Oftentimes the journey is greater than the destination, like you said, “a hundred maybes in the space between the chase...and the devouring.” Meaning that chasing after a lover is often more rewarding than actually being with them because of this mystery. I think that we must be accepting of this mystery and not concoct false expectations to fill this inevitable space.
ReplyDeleteLilly Fabian
When you speak of the addiction to this space, I immediately connect it with the feeling of clinging and desperation to something we are not even sure if we want. Sometimes we become so comfortable to this feeling of uncertainty that we are afraid to lose grasp of it. To me, it is only human to become attached to this void between us and something we desire, whether it be a person or something not tangible at all. The invisible space between the narrator and the person he is desiring is the only thing connecting them together, and therefore he may be afraid to let it go and lose the space forever. He has become so attached to the space that he has become used to it, it seems. At the end of the poem he only has cloudy vibes from the person - he does not know if she will be a disaster (monster) or a blessing (star), and this is what makes this addicting space so uncertain. The narrator may not have the courage to face the unknown and let go, since letting go leads to a loss of security with his emotions. That's precisely why he is stuck in this situation in between two extremes, explaining the limbo.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed this poem, especially because of the structure. I liked how the space between words and lines gradually increases as the poem goes on. Mark Twain was powerful in utilizing the potent effect of silence. During his speeches he would take long pauses to emphasize the words he was saying. I feel like these ideals resonate with this poem because it is all about the space that gives us anxiety. And the obsession with the space that drives us crazy. It is interesting that this poem focuses on what is not being said, rather than the content.
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Alyssa Zucker
I was drawn to this poem initially because of its unique shape, but the intense content of the poem kept me reading. The addictive quality of the space each of us has in our relationships with people is something everyone experiences, but sometimes neglect to realize. There is some form of space that all of us possess, and arguably it is space that keeps our desires consistent. We often want what we cannot have, and we often try to close a space that is put between us. When you refer to a monster and a star, I interpret that as the mending of the space between you and the other person is unpredictable in its outcome; you can’t know how its going to turn out, but its our innate desire to try anyway.
ReplyDeleteWell read; well said.
DeleteOur lives are driven by uncertainty. This so-called “limbo”—the unexpected in the world and the surprise with which we may be taken at any moment—is what drives us forward and keeps us longing for more. It’s an aching hunger for more uncertainty that leads us forward and upward life. We crave it. It’s what gives life its unique flavor of thought despite the inherent risk we take in accepting it in its entirety. Whether it’s a painful longing for love, the struggle to obtain a job promotion, or even the simplicity of waking up the next morning to an uncertain sunrise and the chirping of birds, we live off of the eternal capriciousness of chance. Every moment rushes by as we are preoccupied with the unchangeable past or worries for the future—we never stop to take in the present and live on the edge of our own ephemeral existence.
ReplyDeleteThis poem seems to be about the unknown and being in a transitional state. The title, “Limbo,” refers to an in-between period/period of suspension, or could be an allusion to an afterlife in Christianity which is in between heaven and hell. People who enter limbo are neither tortured in hell nor provided with eternal joy in heaven.
ReplyDeleteThis poem evokes the feeling of unsureness that comes with being in any kind of in-between state—in this case, “the space between / the chase … and the / devouring”. I think this line might relate to the pursuit of a relationship or other goal; the speaker is in the process of pursuing this dream, but hasn’t achieved it yet. The speaker is unsure how his pursuit will end—will he get what he wants, and will it be everything he dreamed it would be? His “obsession” or addiction with the subject being pursued is what keeps him going in this “space” between his pursuit and attainment.
I certainly feel like I am in a transitional period of pursuit in my life right now. I am in my final semester of my senior year of high school, with a major life change—college, living away from home, adulthood—right around the corner. Right now, I am just in limbo, in the process of moving from one stage of life to the next. I am still in “the chase”: I have to keep my grades up so the college I plan on attending won’t rescind my admissions, register for next year’s classes, and meet my roommates. This process is now an all-consuming obsession for me because of how soon college is coming up. When college seemed far away, I was able to live in the moment and focus on high school, but my mind is now focused on the suddenly near future. This state of “limbo” is why so many kids develop senioritis at this point in the year.