I quoted one of my favorite poems earlier today and while I understand not everyone is into poetry, this response came from one of the individuals present, “Even though it makes no sense,” after I mentioned how much I loved the quoted line. I thought to myself, of course it makes sense, and then myself rethought to myself, but why? See, I feel like much of poetry hovers in the gap of Paz’s, “Idea palpable, palabra impalpable,” and while a certain beloved lyric, line, song, painting, makes sense to us we can’t always explain why to ourselves, let alone others. This is where my love of literature, writing, poetry, and self-discovery comes into play, combines, and has a literary ejaculation in my brain. A dorkgasam. I am one of the lucky ones who can have multiple dorkgasams, sometimes one right after the other until I am exhausted and alone with only some crumpled up paper to show for it; my hands sticky with ink because my pen is spent. This particular dorkgasam had me contemplating Stephen Crane and this poem:
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter-bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart.
What supposedly didn’t make sense was, “Because it is bitter, / And because it is my heart.” This made total sense to me and I had a brief double-you-tee-eff moment. After I got over my internal acronym outburst I realized I was lurking in Paz’s gap. I am always trying to bridge this gap.So, this is what I came up with:
Your heart is, literally and metaphorically, a piece of who you are, what you stand for, and what you have been through. It is a common theme in all forms of art to refer to the heart as a representation of what has been done to you and how you feel. When your heart becomes hardened and bitter it may be difficult to remember what it once was, that it was once yours, that it (you) were not always "this" way, that it (you) once worked properly. But if you accept that it was once yours and that it is now changed, you gain a new power. You have the power to destroy it (eat it) and reintroduce it (consume it) thereby accepting (swallowing) the bitterness, the hardship, the changed piece of yourself as still being a piece of yourself. Don’t deny it or cast it out, it is your heart (your experiences) it is a vital component to who you are, no matter how it (you) has changed. It is like saying, this is who I am, who I have become, this is what has happened to me and this is the result, and although it’s not entirely delicious or beautiful, it can, at least, be good. And if a nude bestial creature can accept that, then I guess I can too.
Now, you may still not be convinced that the line makes sense. You may think that I didn’t bridge the gap at all and I simply threw a bloody organ from one bank to the other and called the blood spatter a bridge. Well, you may be right, but I am content with my bloody bridge…
