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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  3644 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Essential Tremor by Elizabeth Metzger

I don't know if I have any analysis to share, but I will say that the end of this poem really struck me:

  I hear in heaven
  the angel has a harelip

  and she is willing to watch you shake.
I once wrote a song called "Hair Lip". I was born with a cleft pallet and according to the doctors, I had a harelip that healed in utero. I was born with a hairline scar that ran from my left nostril down to my lip, where the gap would have been.

I dodged a bullet.

I really enjoyed the poem though, it's got some pretty amazing imagery and for the reasons stated above, that last bit really resonated with me.





bristolstreet  ·  3644 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh, wow, that's incredibly interesting. I love the duality of hare/hair for your hairline scar.

I think a lot of the images are related to falling short of expectations: everything is anticlimactic, even hell and heaven.

I also found an interview with Metzger about the piece that's on the same site. I wasn't able to listen to it all right now, but the beginning sounded interesting.

http://catchandrelease.columbiajournal.org/2014/10/31/writing-a-living-1-elizabeth-metzger/