Another late ass blog ya'll, sorry.
So I had a difficult time reading and writing on this whole family thing. My sense of bloodline is very diluted at best, and the family that I know has been the one that I've created for myself, which I even hesitate to call family for all my negative connotations. My favorite poem that I read was Jannifer Traig's For My Sister in Totem. I liked it because of my own relationship with my sister, but also because there are some homo-erotic undertones and the over feel is something I could relate to. I have an older sister and I could really appreciate the progression and sense of time within this piece. The beginning being a hostile and volatile homicidal relationship:
"But the pink blob would not turn blue.
She would not die.
My tyranny had only strengthened her.
I had made her stronger than myself."
(Totems 176)
Yet, she ends the piece with a much deeper and tender love:
"I would have given it to her for nothing
for a kiss for free
we know by now
that I would do anything for her."
(Totems 177)
I could definitely relate this to family as a new concept, where relationships between familial blood alter through change and the "leave it beaver" nuclear white hetero dynamic is challenged. I feel that this poem challenges these ideas of family because of the hostility, but also because of the underlying homo'ness' of it. Not creepy incest, but the establishment of connection to her sister through physical contact and the establishment of love through a kiss. Which, I really enjoy that Traig wrote about this, I don't know why, but the context of the poem, makes kissing seem almost a way to transgress boundaries of separation. There is an adoration towards her sister for these moments.
That's all I've got for now.
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amazing how poems can cut through the shit sometimes, right? it'll be great if sometime you can come back to these and let them in more.
ReplyDeletee
I loved this one too. The specificity of memory makes the emotion and its cycle, the evolution of a bond, seep through the page. And you've come up with a wonderful take on a kiss. Whether it represents the dissolution of separation or the absence of it, I think you can remove the "almost."
ReplyDeleteTranscending the normal. Escaping the "supposed to." I love your interest in boundaries, and ideals on how we treat each other are challenged. I loved this poem too.
ReplyDeleteBluey aka Michaela C Ellis
Parke, I think the fact that you recognize your "created family" as your kindred is really special and important. The personal definitions we have for family can/should show up in our writing and I think definitely give us another (somewhat unique) entry point into the poetry we read.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your reading of For My Sister because it gives me another entry point into this poem.