Desperate Song Poem by Sandra Feldman

HOW THE WORDS FALL - that's been my experience too the past several months: Once I have my subject and focus the writing flows easily because words fall into place, they are ahead of my pen and already know when to appear and fall into place. That's part of the oceanic mystery of poetry.? ? But this poem is a DESPERATE song which becomes evident in the last stanza with the devastating line: FOR I'M NO LONGER ME. That whole stanza is an example of poetry that writes itself in precise evocative language, b-u-t the emotional effect is startling. But it may be a temporary situation, or not: time will unfold the truth of these things. This is precisedly where Wordsworth found himself in mid-life when he wrote the great ode INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY. And that poem does not disple the crisis or solve it. No, the poem INTEGRATES his negative awareness with his positive awareness.Doesn't that make more senes than trying to defeat such perceptions as I'M NO LONGER ME? It is of no value to deny or disparage or ignore such realizations. It's part of the YOU you have become and it may possibly contain a new unrecognized kind of energy you can use in the process of self-renewal. Because that's what we creative people do - we renew our selves - again and again if necessary. And a final note: if I were totally candid with my-self, I might echo your words. But I am not looking as precisely and honestly at myself as you are. You're the point person, Sandra. You're showing many of us what lies ahead when we finally SEE THINGS CLEARLY: It will be a shock, no doubt, the need for self-renewal. We must all of us eventually write our ODE of self-understanding. As you are.