3 Comments

"as he intones the familiar angry rhymes in that whisky swill of a nasal baritone that settles noiselessly at the bottom of the damp barrel of the soul, his eyes glaze over in quiet contemplation." Holy cow! I could spend an entire afternoon, analyzing this one sentence. This is the reason I love reading @Aranya and Poetly.

I recall my grandfather, a Shakespeare scholar once define poetry to me as "that which cannot be translated." Yet as I've read Poetly, Daak Vaak and other Substackers such as Joshua Doležal my definition of poetry continues to expand. Of course analyzing poetry by looking at its components _can_ run the risk of losing the magic, yet the way my mind works is much like my tongue when it encounters something utterly amazing—there's the initial joy, then the temptation to identify the components—known and unknown, and then re-swirling it around in my mouth a second or third time. Orgasmic.

That is what these two lines did for me:

- intones the familiar angry rhymes - the word choice (not says, reads, speaks but intones)

- the whisky swill of a nasal baritone settles noiselessly at the bottom of the damp barrel of the soul, I don't think I can be myself for the next few days 🤯

- his eyes glaze over in quiet contemplation - the other bookend of "intoning angry rhymes"

Whoa! If you don't subscribe to Poetly yet, stop reading and get over there!

Expand full comment

<3 Thankyou so much for these very very kind words! I'm learning, even from your own analysis, about my writing. I'm so glad that poetly opens up vistas for you, and resonates with your sensibility! gratitude!

Expand full comment

Reading our own writing—esp. at a distance is a great way to learn about how we think and who our influences are. Also your Bob Dylan reference brought back to mind Kirby Ferguson’s “Everything is a remix to mind”

Expand full comment