Now Doesn't Need a Memory

Now doesn't need a memory

now is a memory

'

surging

remembering

ing?

S

ing

u ful

sing

Reviews

[Eilis]

I really enjoy your poetry. Been a silent reader because I have trouble approaching a credible comment, but what the hell, today is the day.

I like the way you play with line breaks or juggle the language to offer different meanings to some simpler words. Here, your last four lines become quite meaning laden with the way they are broken up and presented in bare bones text. It’s a bit like text talk, which adds a hint of levity, but that is turned on its head by the content of the message. It’s like a note to self to stop focusing so much on a picture that cannot be brought into focus because it’s too far out.

Also, like the way you incorporate punctuation as part of the overall effect rather than simply using it with conventionality. The comma on its own creates a almost musical notation type pause and a tension as the act of speaking without language furthers the present and what’s said is now the past, the memory.

Every moment passes more quickly than we are able to grasp the meaning. Or that’s what I gather from the poem. And so it remains for us to sing (or live more fully) on through. Not sure if I am right on your meaning, but that’s where the poem took me.

As I said, I really enjoy your work.