Strange Places

“in earth dreams” dreams

Posted by Daniela Elza on Mar 03 2007

I chose this poem to begin my blog not only because the picture seems to go with it, but also because in some way it seems to express for me what writing is trying to do, or maybe even our existance, in this world mediated by language. What is the world when it is unsaid? What is it when we try to frame it in our words. Do our words change it? How our words change us? All questions I am interested in. Yet, who am I to say what this poem is about? Isn’t that what draws me to writing poetry? Precisely the fact that we cannot clearly and with certainty nail what the poem says but as time goes by we are nourished by it. It is sufficient to have a sense that we have touched something, made a bridge, made a jump, connected. I am reminded of a quote by Italo Calvino about myths in his Memos for the next Millenium. He says,

“But I know that any interpretation impoverishes the myth and suffocates it. With myths, one should not be in a hurry. It is better to let them settle into the memory, to stop and dwell on every detail, to reflect on them without losing touch with their language of images.”

And indeed like myths, poetry speaks the language of images. So here I will not interprete poems. And please stop me if I actually try to. But I will invite you to ponder, be it images, poems, quotes, or my random meditations, thoughts and improvisations.