New theories.
You should not leave children to cry.
Take them in your arms immediately. Otherwise
the feeling of abandonment undergoes
premature growth
their child trauma comes of age abnormally
grows teeth hair nails crooked knives.
For grown ups, the old people as we say
- what's not spring is old these days -
you should follow the ancient principles.
Never embrace them. Strengthen their ellipsis
let them burst out crying
until they are out of breath.
Let the grown ups cry. No embrace.
Just fill their feeding bottle
with non-sweet promise - deprivations
should not get fat - that their mother's embrace
will come once and for good
to send them gauntly to sleep.
Place that device that
records the baby's noises next to them
so that you can listen remotely
whether their breath is rhythmically lonely.
Never be fooled into embracing them.
They can wrap fiercely
around the rare neck of this gift,
they will choke you.
Nothing. When you are asked for an embrace
tell them you will not surrender baby, you will not surrender.
-------------------------------
Personal notes:
This poem was published as part of the collection 'Oblivion's adolescence' (1994).
The poem's main theme is the inherent loneliness of adulthood, which Dimoula suggests is a social construct.
Dimoula acknowledges that we treat children and adults differently when it comes to abandonment. We find it difficult to abandon children when they express pain and suffering, yet we find it normal to leave adults to suffer their own pain. This is particularly true to how we treat the aged.
Dimoula seems to suggest that there is no real difference between how children long for attention and care, and how adults long for other people's embrace. Both longings are just as natural, intense, and desperate. Adults condition themselves to disguise and subdue this need, by suffering on their own, and by ignoring other people's longing for empathy, comfort and assistance.
You should not leave children to cry.
Take them in your arms immediately. Otherwise
the feeling of abandonment undergoes
premature growth
their child trauma comes of age abnormally
grows teeth hair nails crooked knives.
For grown ups, the old people as we say
- what's not spring is old these days -
you should follow the ancient principles.
Never embrace them. Strengthen their ellipsis
let them burst out crying
until they are out of breath.
Let the grown ups cry. No embrace.
Just fill their feeding bottle
with non-sweet promise - deprivations
should not get fat - that their mother's embrace
will come once and for good
to send them gauntly to sleep.
Place that device that
records the baby's noises next to them
so that you can listen remotely
whether their breath is rhythmically lonely.
Never be fooled into embracing them.
They can wrap fiercely
around the rare neck of this gift,
they will choke you.
Nothing. When you are asked for an embrace
tell them you will not surrender baby, you will not surrender.
-------------------------------
Personal notes:
This poem was published as part of the collection 'Oblivion's adolescence' (1994).
The poem's main theme is the inherent loneliness of adulthood, which Dimoula suggests is a social construct.
Dimoula acknowledges that we treat children and adults differently when it comes to abandonment. We find it difficult to abandon children when they express pain and suffering, yet we find it normal to leave adults to suffer their own pain. This is particularly true to how we treat the aged.
Dimoula seems to suggest that there is no real difference between how children long for attention and care, and how adults long for other people's embrace. Both longings are just as natural, intense, and desperate. Adults condition themselves to disguise and subdue this need, by suffering on their own, and by ignoring other people's longing for empathy, comfort and assistance.
George,
ReplyDeleteThis one is beautiful.
I like your comments too, in particular the last paragraph. It goes very much hand in hand with what the poem is doing because socially it is inconsistent. Laying it out on the page as Kiki has done gives that notion a stark presence. Grownups do want embraces, too!
It is also amusing to consider this poem in light of evidence and media in relation to whether babies really should be left to cry or not by their mothers (fathers). If it is summed I think it tends towards the middle; leave for a little and then address, perhaps that is the happy medium so that the gift is not so rare. Though I'm sure every mother would have her own theory.
Reading this on my web browser with a google tab right next to it where this raging dialogue is just at my fingertips makes the juxtaposition between the worlds of words even more apparent!
j
Danke mal wieder für ein schönes Gedicht von dir.Genieße es immmer wieder deine Seite zu lesen. Morgen kommt mein Beitrag zum Thema Kommunikationstrainings , schau gerne mal vorbei.Grüße Ruben
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