Quote:
Originally posted by Stephen Collington:
Hi Lee,
Yes, I can see it. And yes, "empty" makes perfect sense in that case.
It's a funny thing: we sometimes get attached to our own readings of poems as much as we get attached to our poems. I guess my thing with "empty" was just that it seemed to close off (or at least, leave less room for) the interpretation of the poem that I preferred. I wanted to see it as a happy "expectant" scene, and "empty" seemed to preempt that possibility. (I can't get away from the puns this morning, it seems.) As you say though, the poem may have other designs entirely--or at least, be every bit as determined to open itself to multiple readings as readers are determined to find their own preferred interpretation. And that's always a point well taken.
Anyway, as for turds in the pool, watch out! We're a regular flotilla of them around here.
Ducking out!
Steve C.
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Steve, speaking of reading/misreading, here is haiku of mine:
the smell of the iron
as i come down the stairs
winter evening
this was in an anthology issued as a children's book a while back, edited, by the way, by Bill Higginson. The poem is about the smell of an iron for ironing clothes, as i hope the reader would immediately see. but the illustrator for the book, a young woman from san francisco, illustrated the poem with an outdoor staircase with an iron rail covered with snow. boy, did i feel like an anachronism!
Lee