Don't know what is that has allowed 'elegy' to occupy both ends of the pendulum's swing with equal presentation. Comming forth from the poignancies of old (Gray hence) it is easy, for me anyway, to use Auden's Ballad of Miss Gee as a mid-fulcrum poem that allows the emotional modulations and irony of a poem such as this to wear the word 'elegy' so very well in the received autumnal weathers associated with the elegaic. I do, however, rue the that we have been so tainted by the anti-hero style of emotional response to all the Miss, and Mr., Calicos around us. Indeed, if one is enamored of the 'fate' concept, then this anti-hero mode can take root in us as individuals, at which the oils and rainbows of life are stunted.

'goldenrod grave': is this some sort of ante sexual feint of sarcasm directed at the 'screwin' life hands us, or does it merely reenforce the poem's language of grim chills that establish a sense of resignation in progress, or do those terms merely suggest the poor-kempt of a burial site lacking even a mid-haute in the disposition of such matters?; are these even real questions? Shows, among all its other fine qualities, that in a poem all's well that lends well.

"..or so I remember, or so I say." THE greatest psychological freedom we have. Not an excuse, not a begging validation, just an is-ness that serves to allow us to retain at least the image of fallen leaf - from April on - and the river that stole it away with a silence that mind can winnow, and heart keep as heart is wont to do..

Gotta go.

Thanks to all for reading this nano 'critique'.

To Mr. Gallimore, hats off.

Carpe Verve all.

hola Bratsche (Doug, I think it is),

Reading you is always a trip and today perhaps more than most ... Makes me smile to navigate the uncharted waters of your syntax and simagery ... (both of which, for me, are slippery but inviting)

And I think I share your pov and your questions (slipperiness factored in) ... I too reacted to 'goldenrod grave' with curiosity - it sort of felt like an update of Ozymandias to me - and add to it that belladonna is also poisonous ... and baked Alaska serves up a play on words in multiple directions ... the fact that the goldenrod grave dwellers are "grandmas" poses its own jostling of associations ...

And as to the line MA had challenged and you take up here "..or so I remember, or so I say." .... I come down on your side (if I gather you rightly) ... The phrase comes in reference to the narrator's contextualizing of Miss Calico's being "fished out" moment ... and taps into what i read as our individual subjective power to contextualize events in ways that tend over time especially to suit our fancy - as you say, a if not THE greatest psychological freedom we have ... a piece of that freedom to at least shape our attitude toward things - and how we contextualize them (in this case, he seems to want to juxtapose her forlorn downward-spiral fate into the dumpster with the high-flying "eastbound roar[ing] through necklaces of skyline" - which i in my own subjective take read as pointing to the vagaries of life yielding asymmetry and injustice and high contrast) ...

or something like that... The various touches seem to align in the direction of poignancy about a human life ... lost in the shuffle - and yet not "lost" - for the narrator has noticed, engaged her in the intimacy of rather candid interaction and guarded her memory ...

thanks for the 'nano critique' and carpe verve to you too

z

What she said.

What a treat it is to read reviews that are at least as enlightening as the original piece! And I include both in that assessment.

Take care,

Joe