0412 Their World Comments

outstandling poem, Michael! i've often wondered the same things about those old brown photos. you've captured the experience perfectly...like a snapshot of a snapshot. Jake

I loved the poem effortlessly, up to the last stanza. We don't need to know any more about the photo. Your easy meter, and your point of view, remind me of Auden's 'Musee de Beaux Arts'. I devoured it word by word. The guy with the cigarette reminds me of a photo of my dad, that I'll send you. It all comes alive. The last stanza challenged me a little-I don't think it's a criticism of the poem. I had to think and feel around, to get into why it would threaten security. (These other guys got it fine!) Had to imagine myself holding the picture. Still not sure I have it. And I wondered a little about 'every one...lived a valid life, ' a sentence which stood out for me. I suppose it means you're looking at them 'sub species aeternae', from a sort of divine point of view, and what you crave is the finality, being framed like that. The last sentence brought me fresh air, as an acknowledgement of how mysterious the mind is, and of the transience of feelings, even as you hold them.

Old photographs can be so haunting. They reek of poetry. You've captured the essence of them so well.

A great poem, I felt the need to belong and the fear of not belonging, or the fear of fading into an old picture.