Let Us Admire The Lonely Dolphin Poem by Denis Mair
Let Us Admire The Lonely Dolphin
- for Jaroslav Pijarowski
A dolphin left its pod in the sea near Pompeii;
It approached swimmers and played near the beach,
Cavorting with humans, as if eager for attention.
Some poked at its blowhole, yet it kept returning.
News spread to Rome; crowds on the beach increased;
Throngs of viewers made the resort hard to manage.
An official sent wardens to chase the dolphin away;
Later, boatmen noticed its own pod treating it roughly.
For days it wavered between deep water and the beach,
Then one day it was gone, never to be seen again.
Surely it had something to share with those bathers,
But how could they imagine its undersea visions?
How did the watery world look through its eyes?
What mind felt drawn to cavort with those bathers?
A dolphin makes squeaks to confide its feelings;
From the dolphin's thoughts a tree of stories grows
The branches bear fruits; within them are voices,
Which conjure up pictures of life in the ocean.
Though deaf to what it wished to tell,
Let imagination teach me to hear; .
Let me clamber up its tree of stories
And picture humans as that dolphin saw them.
The metaphor of the dolphin at Pompeii for Jaroslav's music which needed deeper understanding and might not be understood by many is a wonderful metaphor.In a way when one is not understood by so many in his surroundings may feel lonely.An artist; s perception is so different from others.It needs deeper insight to understand an art and artist's perspective. Thanks for sharing this wonderful poem.
At first I thought it was a sad account of loneliness and an interesting reflection of eliciting communication. I thought the receptive pictures of what humans were emitting were far too much for this fish. I was desperately hoping that dolphin followed clicks and whistles of welcome to warmer waters than choosing to exist among an ignorant species that poke fingers down blowholes. Second read I realized the poem was a metaphorical write about Jaroslav Pijarowski. Well done.
Hello Simone, Thanks for reading it so thoughtfully and for engaging your sympathies with the plight of the Pompeii dolphin. It is a true story and it deserves or sympathy. I had a conversation with Jaroslav, and dolphins came up. Later I heard some of Jaroslav's music, and I thought maybe it would be hard for him to find understanding listeners, and maybe he feels the sadness of not being understood, so I used the dolphin story metaphorically, as you say. However, in real life Jaroslav Pijarowsky is cheerful, and I cannot imagine him looking glum. Maybe the dolphin is not a good choice of metaphors for him in person, but it seems to fit his music.
This poem reminds me that there are many more than 5 senses and more than just one supreme and sentient creature on this earth. If only we could swim in the sea and open our eyes to envision what the dolphins see.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/24/2024 3:52:08 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Perceptive and poignant, which makes one ponder on the relationship between nature and humanity.