Did he talk to you
Did you she what she saw
I do the talking
My words formed by turns and curves
The lion spoke
It spoke to me
As the dog barked
The shadowy dog barked
Did you hear the juggler
Did you hear the embarrassed juggler
Is she in the portrait
Did they lose their way
In the forest, did they lose their way.
Do you remember anything
Did it suddenly come to light
Are you wearing a new-fangled watch
Did you write the poem
Is this the door
that you crossed rivers and streams to find
Do you think anyone will hear
That man beneath the tree
Did he hear me
Difficult words spoken with a curved tongue
Look at the light against the trees
Was I the one who spoke
Was it me
When I was thinking of what I wanted to do for this week’s blog post, I decided that I liked the idea of responding to a poem that I read this week which in this case was Michael Palmer’s Notes for Echo Lake 4 which I felt was a prime poem to respond to because it mentions the idea of the echo calling back to the poem. Palmer left room for this poem to read as a conversation between two people where the reader is not quite sure what the conversation entails, but the idea of a call in response is felt between the lines. I sought to fill in the other side of the conversation that the speaker seems to have with a person that the reader cannot quite make out. The idea of an echo infers that the same words will be said back to the author, but this echo focuses on rephrasing questions and looking into the conversation that these two men might be having across a pond or a lake.
I pictured two people who could hear each other, but they were far enough apart that the reader could assume that they cannot see each other which might allow for miscommunication to for one to not quite understand the other, but nonetheless, they engage in a discussion with each other despite the loss of understanding. I was not a fan of these poets and found many of the poems very stilted but I did like how this one seemed to focus on a stream of consciousness as the speaker describes the world around them to the best of their ability.
Hi Maggie,
I really enjoyed reading your post! The poem is such a nice complement to Palmer’s and I also felt like it filled in some blanks that were missing! I found your response to the idea of the echoes interesting because of the way echoes can be from others talking to us, or from us talking to ourselves. A lot of what language poetry seems to stand for is a good deal of empty space that leaves room for us to fill in the blanks or create our own meaning. It was really comforting to get the other side of the conversation through your poem, and I think it also speaks to an idea that your words only matter if someone else hears them and responds to them.