It's always good when a:
It's always good when a reading has caught the paradox.
The poem points us toward silence as meaning,
but it takes words to open that door.
That tension where needing language to notice
what lies beyond language bounces off Zen and Buddhist thought.
Your reflection shows the poem did its work: it made the silence audible.
What you said about needing words to hear the silence captures the paradox beautifully.
That’s exactly the space I hoped the poem would open up.
That image of being “the:
That image of being “the body burned to heat the hearth” is definitely unsettling, but it actually gets at something real: joy isn’t free.
Harvest joy always costs something like grain has to be threshed, grapes crushed, wood consumed so that bread, wine, and warmth can exist.
The fire in Rejoicing isn’t about destruction but about transformation: what’s given up becomes light, heat, and song for everyone gathered.
It’s a reminder that celebration is born out of offering, and that what feels spent can return as shared gladness.
Wow!! This full edition is: Wow!! This full edition is incredible as tattered virgin ware stockings, ha! You really ravaged that bitch, place your bets, under the honeymoon's half-light!
Yeah, reading this back the: Yeah, reading this back the very next day, prompted primarily by your delightful comment, my God, was definitely a trip, to say the least.
the silence itself is the script: the silence itself is the script...
Buddhist?
Thanks for helping me hear the silence. The funny thing is ... had you not said, or rather written the words, would I have still heard it?
Peace
Thank you for bringing both: Thank you for bringing both conviction and close reading here.
I share your sense that homelessness in wealthy societies
is less about resources than will, and your naming of
hyper‑individualism as tyranny sharpens that truth.
I’m glad that the hinge between physical and emotional
exile spoke to you, that your pause on
“Marble floors echo louder than alleys” felt like the loop closing.
I am so grateful to you.
The jester’s chant, the:
The jester’s chant, the dragons, the stage, all circling around themes of illusion, temptation, and emptiness like a surreal carnival. I especially felt the tension between humor and dread, and the way the final image leaves the speaker undone. It’s unsettling, but in a way that lingers like a dream you can’t quite shake.
Contrary to the paranoid: Contrary to the paranoid concept of this poem, I love how many fields you are able to fit each successive stanza in order to describe this type of malady. And the Chorus really hits too. The Grinch actually cracks me up too...
Glad to have brought some: Glad to have brought some enjoyment and interaction. We would have been different poets or worked at it in other ways had there been no social media aspect to this exercise.
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