I like this poem. I like reading it this week in conjunction with last week’s Donald Justice offering.
The Thread
Something is very gently,
invisibly, silently,
pulling at me-a thread
or net of threads
finer than cobweb and as
elastic. I haven’t tried
the strength of it. No barbed hook
pierced and tore me. Was it
not long ago this thread
began to draw me? Or
way back? Was I
born with its knot about my
neck, a bridle? Not fear
but a stirring
of wonder makes me
catch my breath when I feel
the tug of it when I thought
it had loosened itself and gone.
I love Levertov.
This poem reminds me of a feeling that I tried to communicate in a poem. I had written another poem that included one sexual reference. I have written erotic poems and stories (which also took some getting used to) mostly as gifts to a partner. However, I had never included a sexual reference in a non-erotic poem and I felt the socialization of not including sex in a conversation about other things with an audience that could be anyone. Intellectually, I believe that if talking about sex were not so taboo that many of the manifestations of oppression and sexism through sex would dissipate. Hence, I included the reference and wrote another poem about the subtle power of socialization.
Thank you again for the Thursday poems.
Thanks, Hugo, I like that one. I’ve got so many threads like that, I find myself looking for spiders.