Canicular
“Hate me for my
whole kind, but me,
love me for
myself .” - Robert Pinsky
for Marley
The rooms remain bare
No matter how much I fill them;
My embrace misjudged
Provokes a growl of resentment;
The hidden lines of olfactory text
Remain undiscovered in the field.
You never cared for my books…
Others of your kind
Perform a mime of your
Prostrations, but I kid myself
That I’m not fooled,
Pretend them toys or playthings:
Tokens of appeasement
From an unforgiving God
Who took you from my enjoyment.
How selfish we can be:
You taught me many things
But yet
I find it hard to be free,
As free as one who
Never knew the word existed.
Sometimes a good title focuses and clarifies a poem's meaning and intent; sometimes it widens its scope and opens up its possibilities without making specific understanding any simpler."Canicular" refers, in general, to a dog, and this association would color the reader's reaction to the poem in certain ways. However, it also refers to the dog days -- the hot summer period, a time of inactivity -- that more or less coincide with the first annual appearance of the two stars in the constellation Canis Major that are jointly referred to as Sirius, the Dog Star, the brightest visible star in the heavens. The heliacal rising of "Sothis," as Sirius was known to the Egyptians, occurs just before the yearly flooding of the Nile that fertilizes the land with fresh mud, and also is the time that the grapevines blossom. The Egyptians and Greeks also associated it with epidemics. In the seventeenth century, Thomas Browne noted the traditional "Physician's vacation" when "all medication is to be declined, and the cure committed unto Nature." In 1976 Robert K. G. Temple published his theory that extraterrestrials from Sirius visited Earth, based on his interpretation of the astronomical lore of the Dogon people of Mali. Dr. David Alter refers to the "canicular surface" of the liver's hepatocytes, which are responsible for the processes of detoxification as well as both the formation and secretion of bile. And so it goes.... Any of these associations, and others, may enrich and enlighten our appreciation of this fine poem, even if not directly intended by Simon himself. Poems sometimes take on a life of their own, beyond their original purpose.
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