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October 29, 2007
The Active Map We Are
Of course I realize that although you are submitting your mapping (note that I did not say mapped) of The Red Wheelbarrow or The Lightning is a yellow Fork the need to map persists,
for we are all involved intensely in the mapping of our lives, in the mapping of meaning in our encounters, in the mapping of a 240 in which a relevance of poetry to the other aspects of our lives is established, that establishement constituting a map.
So we will use the metaphor of mapping to refer to journeys through poems
such as Elizabeth Bishop's The Fish
which accomplishes, among all else that it accomplishes, the mapping of a fish and the mapping of an encounter with a fish, and a mapping of the the outcomes (or impact) of that encounter with a fish. Note the level of specificity achieved without naming a species of fish.
Can the species of fish be determined based on the details the poem provides?
Perhaps these initial maps will be part of the atlas you submit at the end of the course.
(more about this context later)
I have done some mapping/remapping myself, and I invite you to explore these maps in the following links:
A Limited Forker Girl's Tines
Bifurcation Station
Limited Fork 101
Limited Fork Academic Split Tine, and
Tine D.A.D.A. Club
Happy mapping of your journey to and nabigation of these mapped tines.
Now for a fishy remapping:
I caught a tremendous fish and held him beside the boat half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of its mouth. He didn’t fight. He hadn’t fought at all. He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable and homely. Here and there his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper, and its pattern of darker brown was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles, fine rosettes of lime, and infested with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three rags of green weed hung down. While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen — the frightening gills, fresh and crisp with blood, that can cut so badly —
I thought of the coarse white flesh packed in like feathers, the big bones and the little bones,
the dramatic reds and blacks of his shiny entrails, and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony. I looked into his eyes which were far larger than mine but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed with tarnished tinfoil seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass. They shifted a little, but not to return my stare.
— It was more like the tipping
of an object toward the light. I admired his sullen face, the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw that from his lower lip — if you could call it a lip — grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line, or four and a wire leader with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks grown firmly in his mouth. A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines, and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap when it broke and he got away.
Like medals with their ribbons frayed and wavering, a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw. I stared and stared and victory filled up
the little rented boat, from the pool of bilge where oil had spread a rainbow
around the rusted engine to the bailer rusted orange, the sun-cracked thwarts,
the oarlocks on their strings, the gunnels — until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.
--Okay --we're establishing the importance of details in this discussion --yet an obvious detail is missing: catfish? rainbow trout? (etc)
Now for more about the importance of details, go here (a famous tale, popular in college intro expository writing classes --and in creative writing classes)
Now another reconfiguration as we fish for more blossoming of relationships between structure and meaning:
I caught a tremendous
fish
and held
him
beside the boat
half
out
of water, with my hook
fast in a corner
of its mouth.
He
didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought
at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered
and venerable
and homely.
Here and there
his brown skin
hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost
through age.
He was speckled
with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white
sea-lice,
and underneath two or three
rags
of green weed
hung down.
While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen
— the frightening gills,
fresh
and crisp with blood,
that can cut
so badly —
I thought of
the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones
and the little bones,
the dramatic reds
and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink
swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
which were far
larger than mine
but shallower,
and yellowed,
the irises backed
and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass.
They shifted a little,
but not
to return my stare.
— It was more like
the tipping of an object
toward the light.
I admired
his sullen face,
the mechanism
of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
— if you could call it a lip —
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces
of fish-line,
or four
and a wire leader
with the swivel
still attached,
with all their five
big hooks
grown firmly
in his mouth.
A green line,
frayed at the end
where he broke it,
two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped
from the strain and snap
when it broke
and he got away.
Like medals
with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard
of wisdom trailing
from his aching jaw.
I stared and stared
and victory filled up
the little rented
boat, from the pool
of bilge
where oil had spread
a rainbow
around the rusted
engine to the bailer rusted
orange, the sun-cracked
thwarts, the oarlocks
on their strings,
the gunnels
— until everything
was rainbow,
rainbow,
rainbow! And I let the fish go.
Posted by thyliasm at October 29, 2007 04:59 PM
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Comments
After re-reading this poem, noting the differences in spacial representations of the words for the same poem, I felt a little bit different reaction to its significance.
In the latter representation, I found the spacial changes to magnify the clarity of the words. When I think about life in general, I do not think that it comes in perfect little pieces. Each word I think its fine tuned until a thought comes out of my mouth. However, each thought I think about does not come in chronological order; I may think about two things at once, or think about one idea longer than another. This real time thinking is what I get from reading the latter poem. It feels more spontaneous to me, it makes me connect with ideas that I would normally think but may not necessarily say.
In the former, I got a sense of narrative; a dislocation from the atmosphere in which the poem itself was created. I didn't really like this, because I felt that I wanted to be apart of this poem. It does such a good job describing the fish and is reactions that I needed to feel as if I was right there watching it happen myself.
I feel that this distinction is something I am going to try and leverage in my later poams. I want to be able to lay a foundation for which the poam can be read, in order to become apart of it and establish a connection with my audience even further.
Posted by: helefter at November 9, 2007 08:17 PM
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