By Kay Ryan
Say you hoped to
tame something
wild and stayed
calm and inched up
day by day. Or even
not tame it but
meet it halfway.
Things went along.
You made progress,
understanding
it would be a
lengthy process,
sensing changes
in your hair and
nails. So it's
strange when it
attacks: you though
you had a deal
This got my attention in the New Yorker. I was going to transcribe it and you saved me that effort! Do you have a take on the line about sensing changes in your hair and nails. She's up to something with that turn of phrase and I'm stuck rerding the intent behind those words.
ReplyDeleteGlad I could be of assistance!
ReplyDeleteWhat I get from the lines is that it makes the feelings she's describing much more concrete, and it makes me think of when you feel tingly in your fingers or it feels like your hair is standing up on end - either from excitement or from fear. But I don't really know what event or feeling in particular the author was referring to - but that's true for the whole poem. It's just a very vivid way of describing a feeling that is often seemingly beyond words.
My take is that when we think we are changing someone/something, the changes we are looking for so often manifest themselves first in us...we think because we feel the changes or perceive/intuit the changes that this makes it real...that the change has occurred--and we get bitten by the truth--no change.
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