Poetry Reader,

The title of Charles Frederickson’s September 8th poem begins it all: “STUTTER NONSENSE.” You and I know that the title is not right to our ears. That title should be: “Utter Nonsense.”

This corrected title evokes what goes on in front of our noses every day: the cacophony of noise, grunts and oinks which attack our sensibilities every day we walk a city street.

The re-worked “STUTTER NONSENSE,” evokes an image of a stutterer stuttering so much that her/his meaning is garbled. Or does it draw a conclusion from what will be presented in the body of the poem which follows? Hmm.

The poem presents some difficulties. First there is a lack of punctuation. For what purpose is this stripping necessary. Where are the clues for the eyes and the sensibility hinting: Whops, you forgot to stop at this period or you forgot to pause at this comma or you forgot to raise the tone of your voice at this question mark.

One answer comes to my mind when I see the willful striking of punctuation from a poem: The poet seems to say, “I want an extra close reading of this poem and in order to achieve this end I am going to force you to read slowly and with great awareness by removing all punctuation. I can not think of another answer to the question which the missing punctuation poses.

In the first stanza we have the statement that Few mortals reach Olympus summit, because Olympus was meant to be only inhabited by the Gods?
Then comes:

Walt Whitman shouted Vivas for
All those who have failed
But done so with dignity

In this phrase we have the mention of a poetic ancestor whom the poet is claiming as his own as well as a statement of praise for that mentor.
In the next lines:

Mental gymnastics uplifting weighty burden
Keeping track tripping over hurdles
Hop-skip-jumping to conclusions
High bar leaps of faith

We have mental muscle builders putting on the bulk of strong thoughts. Perhaps these un-named are competing in mental Olympics?

But in some way they all seem to fail at their competition: “tripping over hurdles,” “jumping to conclusions,” and taking the “leap” of Kierkegaard’s “faith” upwards towards….whatever instead of over the broad canyon of doubt.

I know these failures. I see one each morning when I shave.

The next section continues the conceit of mental/physical Olympics:

Dashed chance bruised ego stumbles
Secondhand excuses up for grabs
Relay team blaming each other
Dropped baton scapegoats butted off

In the next section we have a break from the original direction of the poem in:

Triumphant past never repeats itself
Once upon probably never was
Broken records pieced back together
Promise stuck in vinyl crack

The poet states that the past victories will never repeat themselves. But does he mean personal victories or people like alcoholics and addicts who no longer have to use day after day? Or is something else hinted at? Something beyond the scope of the individual whom he hinted at in the beginning of the poem?

In the second two lines of this section we have a modern reference: that of “vinyl” “records.” Some of you are so young that you might not think of a record player with plastic discs spinning around being amplified by the dragging of a needle across a track physically cut into the disc, what with “texting” and “Ipod” removing the former ways [records] of handling information and entertainment.

In the next eye section we read:

Failed courage coming up short
Unjeweled crown bleeding thorny sweat
Ploughshares dragged across furrowed brow
Phantom spirit letdown unsung anthem

In Finnish there is a word. It is “sisu.” A word for word rendering, which is something upon which the translator Leo Vuosalo depends, is not possible for this word. The closest translation of meaning for this word comes in a phrase: “a stubbornness from which the impossible is achieved.”

The word “courage” does not have the “ufta” necessary to convey all of the nuances which belong to “sisu.” The second word, “courage,” in this poem, also does not hold the regular meanings which ride in the “cliched” popular press.

We know this because of the descriptions of the actions which accompanied the
Failed courage.
What follows is the reference to Jesus’ mode of death under an

Unjeweled crown bleeding thorny sweat.

Matched by the marks of deep care and concern, what Heidegger refers to as being “Zorge,” plowed across the referent’s face.

With the removal of Jesus from the cross of crucifixion, we have:

Phantom spirit letdown unsung anthem.
Done, literally, without a song.

The conclusion slaps our eyes with:

Disneyworld moments regurgitated umpteen times
Hero worship glorifies nationalistic pride
Surpassing expectations bettering personal bests
Smiling adverts hoped for hype

And from this cynical end of the poem we have the words of a disillusioned Romantic? Or perhaps two disillusioned Romantics? We do not know what if anything will re-kindle them. Certainly advertisements for the real Olympics will not fire them up. Neither will the extended metaphor of mental muscle building.

Is there a hope which is not hyped, which the poet holds? Does he open his hand in another poem?

Agape, kiitos, shalom, Xie xie, salaam ja Namaste,

Don as “Tauno”

DDE

Response: Thanx for your comment. All of the art is original with my black & white renderings colored by my talented partner Saknarin Chinayote. CF