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November 26, 2007
Illumination
Over break I took pictures recording instances of illuminatinon. This is a continuning project for me, and as soon as I figure out an appropriate way to post these pictures, I will. Not all are pictures, some are written as well.
Meanwhile, I will briefly discuss my experience with the illumination survey last week. Four out of five people had an illuminating moment the same day I gave the survey. Moments of illumination ranged from figuring out the meaning of a song to hearing old stories, and remembering things from the past. I then provided a few lines of poetry and asked if they were illuminated by them. The excerpt was from the Nye poem I posted a few weeks ago:
Once I knew a man who gave his wife
two skunks for a valentine.
He couldn't understand why she was crying.
"I thought they had such beautiful eyes."
And he was serious. He was a serious man
who lived in a serious way. Nothing was ugly
just because the world said so. He really
liked those skunks. So, he re-invented them
as valentines and they became beautiful.
At least, to him. And the poems that had been hiding
in the eyes of skunks for centuries
crawled out and curled up at his feet.
Three out of five people found these lines illuminating. For those who wrote "no," no explanation was provided. Ironically, this was the case for those who wrote "yes," as well. Instead of an explanation, people underlined parts of the poem that they found particularly interesting or moving. All underlined different parts. It seems that there is something about this poem that is so ordinary, but because it is so profound in an unusual kind of way, it becomes difficult to express why it may be illuminating.
Posted by pbali at November 26, 2007 12:42 AM
Comments
There are many who like to associate some aspect of poetry with the mysterious or to spiritual qualities as a means of transcending the limitations of humanity in a bounded or finite reality. Illumination seems related to an aspect of poetry often called resonance, the moment in a poem, often placed in a poem's final line or phrase, in which the idea extends beyond the literal meaning, and connects the person who perceives the resonance to a greater resoance, an understanding that is significantly larger than the bounded or finite reality of the poem. Poems that manage this well usually become known as great poems.
The maker's ability to recognize such a moment in the construction of a poem often provides the makewr with a good location to end the poem, a good destination being the moment in which the poem opens, expands as opposed to moment that closes the poem, emphasizing the bounded state as the prevailing consition or situation of excistence.
Posted by: thyliasm at November 26, 2007 01:15 PM
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