A double set
Of rails ran right by
Our house and how
I never tired of walking on them
As far as I could, trying
My best not to fall, pretending
All the while they were
Heading nowhere
In particular save
To carry each new balancing
Act a little farther
Out of there.
Wonderful, unsentimental evocative poem about childhood, which read aloud is a finely tuned balancing act.
ReplyDeleteThe line breaks work the way James Longenbach describes how line breaks can work: "By holding us back, the line keeps us racing forward. . .We need a highly nuanced line to keep our poems from standing still, and, more than that, we need a line capable of many different effects, one that will save us from mere repetition of the same effect, however compelling it might be." In Zambararas' poem about movement (physical and emotional) the line breaks provide rhythm and suspense.
Visually, the way the poem begins with a single line and ends with a single line works beautifully. And one can even join those first and last lines ("A double set. . .Out of there") to form one of many readings of the poem.
Thank you, John, for yet another close reading of one of my poems; it never ceases to amaze me how well you "get" what many readers may be unaware of at first glance, and that is indeed a real talent.
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