Hello Max,
So how much does the poem do more than the following skeleton:
THE EMPTY SCHOOLYARD
This was his children’s school. The memory trembles.
How long since he’s been here he doesn’t know.
I myself am not sure. Poetry cannot simply be what happens when folk are not willing to write a "complete" scene.
Why now? Why is the narrator at the scene of his children's old school now? What is the plausible reason for him visiting the grounds so much later after his children went to the school that he finds the change in scene emotionally significant?
If this is poetry as the emotional concentration/distillation of the moment, then it seems the reason for the emotional importance is somewhat not included and what fills the gap is more and more skilfully rendered description.
It seems to be that the poem is making some comment on the concept of change, perhaps modifying with additional concepts of "aging" and "the cycle of life" but the comment is a vague pointing in a certain direction.
Yeah!
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