.JPG)
I don't like thinking
that I'll have to
stop
At the thought
of
kissing you:
Even if it's only
a kiss goodbye,
There are things that words can't say;
Even
if it's only
on the cheek,
As the last thing that I do,
There's a wordless thing that I
have
to
tell
'Cause
I
like you
in that
way.
* Thanks Jomeline B. (en route to Santa Clara & Cantwell's roast beef sandwich), Brigitte H. (Lamu Island pier-jumper), Leanne K. (Lake Tahoe), Caitlin U-S. (pearl-kisser), Megan W. (beater-lickers), Christy K. (wedding snugglers), Kris L. (strange gods of Americana – Nashville), Amelia M. (a kiss for Penny), Maria B-H. (dog snuggler), and Les B. (Jellies brown – Monterey Bay) for making this collage full.
ReplyDeleteNow this, sir, might be your finest collage yet. If it wasn't for the sandwich, I would have used "is" in place of "might be."
ReplyDeleteThe structure of this poem and the singular sentence throughout the poem relate to the feelings and emotions of the poem. By making it all a single sentence it creates a feeling of desperation and trying to drag out the inevitable. I get the feeling of a secret, unrequited love with so much left to say. The dragging out of the poem through the single sentence makes the reader understand the narrators reluctance to let go. Also the culmination of feelings at the end when he finally reveals that he likes the subject in a more intense way that he could express, adds to the feeling of reluctance. The falling structure of the poem reflects the feelings of falling in love or falling deeper into the depression lost love causes, depending on the inclination of the poem and the reader's reaction.
ReplyDeleteThe way you have structured the poem emulates the thoughts and feelings of one taken hold of by love. The fragmenting of the sentence into bits and pieces has paralleled the scattered way one's brain is when thinking about love. Often times when one feels the emotion of love, one's thoughts are incoherent, tangled, and inexplicable. This is applicable to any situation whether it be a person falling in love or a person falling out of love. This fragmented structure also suggests that the speaker is unable to communicate his or her feelings to the beloved, reflecting the way in which humans get tongue-tied when they are around a person that is special to them. I thought that by separating the actual thought of the speaker by words, it was emphasizing the single thought and bringing sense to the fragmented thoughts at the beginning of the poem.
ReplyDeleteI find the title, “The Sentence…” ironic since one of your main point in Book 3 is to emphasize that feelings matter over thought and it is even address in the poem “that words can’t say” everything the heart feels, but your preference for feeling over thought is clearly demonstrated through the speaker’s statement that he does not like to think. I noticed that the more the poem pertains to feelings, the steeper the slope of the lines are; in the first three lines, the speaker says “think” and “thought” and in the last set of lines he is wholly referring to his emotions. I find that this poem, amongst those that I have read, best portrays your point that emotion is far more meaning than complex thought and words because there are some many feeling that words cannot express and the desire to kiss some, “Even if it’s only/ a kiss goodbye” or “on the cheek”; it gives people more pleasure than comprehensive words can express. The idea of having wordless emotions is something that everyone can relate to, particularly the emotion of love. As the dog demonstrates in “I’m a Dog (song)” love has to be shown, not said.
ReplyDelete{Sentence (noun) - the punishment assigned to a defendant found guilty ...} Hope that resolves the seeming irony.
Delete"your preference for feeling over thought is clearly demonstrated through the speaker’s statement that he does not like to think."
When the poem says, " I don't like thinking / that I'll have to stop / At the thought of / kissing you," and you cite it as saying, "I don't like thinking," that's called FOX-newsing it.
Thoughts and emotions each have their requisite strengths and weaknesses. Emotions may be more basic, but I'd never claim them as superior.
I see how you used fragmented sentences to emulate the incoherentness and the scattering of ones mind and reasoning when they are in love. By tearing apart the sentences and works it parallels the tearing apart ones mind and heart and how each thought becomes jumbles and you think of the one you love. The breaks in-between sentences gets shorter and shorter ads the poem goes on as the stress builds. The shorter the breaks also reinforce the importance of each word making each word stand out and have a deeper meaning.
ReplyDeleteYour collage also contains a similar experience in which you are plunging into a vast abyss, love, while simultaneously being shredded apart inside like the tire next to you.
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ReplyDeleteThe structure of this poem “The sentence” caught my attention right away. It is interesting how the structure flows as one long sentence with different types of punctuation in between. I anticipate that there is a end to each of the lines but I realize that it only ends once. I have a necklace that reads, “This circle is round and has no end that’s how long I want to be your friend”. This poem reminds me of this particular necklace because in the opening line, “I don’t like thinking / that I’ll have to stop” flows the way the necklace does infinitely in its shape. Love can be portrayed as everlasting which can be a special type of love. When the “thought of kissing you” (lines 3-4) is revealed I get the sense that there is a relationship involved in which you are in love or saddened if your love was to ever to leave or will be leaving soon. This creates a powerful image that the shows the true emotion expressed through a kiss that cannot reveal the same feelings to claim the difference between what emotions show when said and actually done therefore they are things, “words can't say” (line 7). I noticed that this line ties back to the title. No one wants to stop loving a special person or see them disappear from their life, however if you are able to face this factor before it hits you all at once unexpectedly it can be less painful. From the way you describe the, “wordless thing that I have to tell” (line 12) makes me curious as to what exactly you have to say before your love leaves or even if she is leaving at all. In the last line of the poem, however, you claim “I like you in that way” changes the way I viewed it because in highschool there is a difference between liking someone and loving someone. When you make this statement that you simply like her yet in relations with her it makes me question what this person actually meant to you or whom they were to you.This poem is filled with different emotions of love and curiosity through the feelings of this person.
ReplyDeleteWords are over-rated (especially words like 'love') ... honestly, can you ever tell someone that you love them in any way other than a "wordless way"?
DeleteAny pimp or abusive parent, self-centered girlfriend or hypersexed boy can say "I love you so much." Words mean nothing on their own. Show what you mean.
I agree, over-rated is the ideal way to describe the way people so casually throw around the words "I love you" to almost anyone. On the other hand, when people say "I hate you" it becomes so much more offensive and people tend to say this only to people they truly despise. Love is not proven through words but rather actions one will set forth to reveal their true feelings.
DeleteI find the title of this poem interesting as a “sentence” has two meanings. The first that came to mind was the literary version, a complete statement with a main clause and other subordinate clauses that form a whole. The second meaning didn’t come to me until I read one of your comments above. The idea of a ruling decision or a verdict placed on a person creates an interesting contrast. Sometimes, words aren’t enough to convey something. A simple sentence doesn’t do some feelings justice as it tries to confine one’s emotions into one statement. I can see this dilema reflected in the collage above. A man is jumping into a boundless and unknowable force - the ocean - while the fragments of a tire seem to follow him. The realities of ordinary human life are in the foreground (like the sandwich - at least I think that’s what it is- and the tire and the road) while the endless horizon is in the background. The man’s potential is limitless as he’s jumping away from the confines of the road and into the ocean. This can be related to the other form of a sentence as well. When a person is sentenced for some crime his entire life becomes that sentence. The simple words of his sentence encompass his entire future yet don’t seem to do the gravity of his situation justice. They are just words and phrases put together. It is hard to comprehend the fact that this man's entire future can be summarized just by the words of his sentence, but that seems to be the reality.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you read the other comments beforehand ... it helps to make these comment threads feel more like conversations, going forward (even if they take breaks of years or more along the way).
DeleteI've always held that our limits give us our propulsive energy (it's the barrel of the gun, that confining sentence of "you go that way," which channels the power behind that whistling bead...)
I liked how this poem was set up as jumbled phrases that skip lines and stop at abrupt points, because I think it illuminates the meaning behind the words. I think the whole poem is a complex sentence divided by semi colons to represent the extensive thought being carried out. The first set of lines before the first semi colon is divided into four different lines, each possessing a feeling of longing. “I don’t like thinking” creates a strong statement “that I’ll have to stop” creates anticipation “at the thought of” creates wonder and “kissing you” is the closure. I think the meaning behind the words are the completely lost emotions behind someone that is in love. Love creates confusing feelings; feelings you’re scared of, feelings you can’t say because they can’t be formed in to words, or feelings that simply can’t be supported by words and must stand alone. I interpreted the title “The Sentence” as not the literal “I love you”, but all of the feelings one has leading up to the sentence or what it does to them once they fall deeply into it.
ReplyDeleteThis poem was never about the words "I love you." Nor even about that sentiment, necessarily. It was about the intention, the impulse, that lives behind a kiss.
Delete“The Sentence” immediately caught my eye because of its physical appearance. Each line is not perfectly aligned with the others, and for this reason, I felt as though I had to attempt to understand it.
ReplyDeleteIt feels to me as though this poem is a rush of emotion, a fleeting thought. It’s expressing an in-the-moment type of feeling, in which the speaker knows and acknowledges that there is much that he wants to say but that he cannot say it in any way other than through a kiss. The scattered lines also illuminate this aspect of the poem; the thoughts are everywhere but in only one place at the same time, focused on one person but simultaneously affecting everything within the speaker’s mind. The moment seems to be vastly important to the speaker, as he says that “There’s a wordless thing that I have to tell,” the speaker’s use of “have” adding weight to the phrase. Despite all of this, however, the final statement is so simple: “ ‘Cause I like you in that way.” The simplicity of the moment makes it beautiful, the complex, scattered thoughts leading to the one kiss and the kiss only -- something so simple but so important.
Right? Words are over-rated.
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ReplyDeleteIn this poem the first two ideas that popped into my read while reading, was the fact that actions speak louder than words and the idea of goodbye. The fact that the speaker wanted to kiss made me feel like giving the person a kiss was meant to replace the words he could use to describe his feelings. This idea did not really affect me, but just popped into my head. The line that states “Even if it’s only a kiss goodbye” reminded me of going off to college. We will all be leaving our families and our parent will probably hug us and kiss us on the forehead before sending us off. This poem makes me feel like the speaker really cares about this person.
I feel as though the speaker regrets the fact that all he can do to demonstrate his love is a kiss goodbye, as his other option, words, carries no real weight to it either. Love is such an abstract word. Somebody created it for all of us to use - but what does it really mean? I love a sandwich, but I also love my mom. I say I love this man, I love spending time with him, I love the way he looks, I love the way he makes me feel, but do I love him? What does that even mean? Does it really mean much to me if he says I love you, but still finds himself unhappy with me? We give words their significance; they should not define our relationships and feelings. We are not simple enough to truly express ourselves and all of our unspeakable thoughts, our deepest confusions, our darkest fears. Labeling or categorizing feelings or connections is futile.
ReplyDeleteNot futile. Just not sufficient...words are useful; actions are active.
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