Hi John,
I enjoyed this. It has your usual flair for subtle juxtaposition of ideas and images. Here we see worlds changing and disappearing before our eyes.
It all works well for me until the slightly weak line-ending 'place'. There might be a way to re-orient the breaks here to highlight the transformation rather than the place. I'm sure you've played with it already.
I liked the souls comment and well enough understood it as something like a dry overstatement.
I think you could lose 'a house / too fresh to say goodbye to'. I can't really make sense of it and I sense the poem lingers a little too long on the house.
The final line isn't quite working for me yet, and I wonder whether ending at 'silent people waited' might be sufficiently suggestive for this poem's conclusion.
Thanks for posting. Hope the comments are of use.
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