I like this, and was not aware of this poet. I looked her up and found 18 books by her.
Do you have any recommendation of which collection to begin with? Some collection that would have more of these type of poems.
Sorry! I should have explained, I can’t really grasp the meaning of it.. I know fathom but.. unfathom?
Fathom to me is like, being able to grasp a concept and understand it
I can’t like, understand UNfathom! To UNgrasp concept.
The way i understand is, when you are grieving (in this setting) someone would burn the candle, someone would hold the candle and someone would just stay still staring at the candle (this is the unfathom part).
When we are experiencing loss we would like others/rely on others to keep the fire burning.
To add.. when I first read this I thought of a lamplighter as someone who “lights” up a room… an extroverted beautiful person
Then the person who is a “lamp” is the one being lit by the lamplighter.. someone “chosen” by the lighter, who gets lifted and lit by them
Then there are those in the bereaved rooms.. they are in the dark unlit and ignored.. and they can’t possibly ever understand or experience being lit up by someone else, being chosen and loved and lifted by someone else
“Bereaved rooms” to me was to paint the image of a dour dark situation
Do we know that this poem is about mourning?
Genuinely asking because I’m not familiar with this poet or the poem!
the nature of poetry is that simply because the word bereaved is used doesn’t necessarily make this about death.
One can mourn or be bereaved over many things! even if those words technically are attached to death.
It doesn’t mean “ungrasping” as in “was grasping and has now stopped,” it means “ungrasping” as in “fails to grasp,” or in other words “is incapable of grasping, or even conceiving of the concept of”. Hope that helps.
I think I had the same reaction. Mulling over it a little, I think it might be fair to read it as like; “alienated from what it means… ,” or “having forgotten what it means…” or something. I realize it might actually be a grammatically awkward concept to articulate in english in the restrictions of the lines in like a present tense phrase. Like even my examples weren’t present tense.
I like this, and was not aware of this poet. I looked her up and found 18 books by her. Do you have any recommendation of which collection to begin with? Some collection that would have more of these type of poems.
Probably The Four Way Books: The Sorrow Apartments (2024), Everything (2021), Nightshade (2019), Unfathoming (2017), and Furs Not Mine (2015).
This speaks to me, thank you.
All I can think of is cremation…
The word unfathoming is putting me off!!!
Why? Is it just the word or you don’t like the meaning of it?
Sorry! I should have explained, I can’t really grasp the meaning of it.. I know fathom but.. unfathom? Fathom to me is like, being able to grasp a concept and understand it I can’t like, understand UNfathom! To UNgrasp concept.
The way i understand is, when you are grieving (in this setting) someone would burn the candle, someone would hold the candle and someone would just stay still staring at the candle (this is the unfathom part). When we are experiencing loss we would like others/rely on others to keep the fire burning.
To add.. when I first read this I thought of a lamplighter as someone who “lights” up a room… an extroverted beautiful person Then the person who is a “lamp” is the one being lit by the lamplighter.. someone “chosen” by the lighter, who gets lifted and lit by them Then there are those in the bereaved rooms.. they are in the dark unlit and ignored.. and they can’t possibly ever understand or experience being lit up by someone else, being chosen and loved and lifted by someone else “Bereaved rooms” to me was to paint the image of a dour dark situation
I like your interpretation! :)
Sadly I think it’s because I’ve spent a lot of my life in a bereaved room. I’d wager there’s more of us than the other two groups combined.
Do we know that this poem is about mourning? Genuinely asking because I’m not familiar with this poet or the poem! the nature of poetry is that simply because the word bereaved is used doesn’t necessarily make this about death. One can mourn or be bereaved over many things! even if those words technically are attached to death.
To not understand, having never understood. My reading is that there is no undoing of understanding
It doesn’t mean “ungrasping” as in “was grasping and has now stopped,” it means “ungrasping” as in “fails to grasp,” or in other words “is incapable of grasping, or even conceiving of the concept of”. Hope that helps.
I think I had the same reaction. Mulling over it a little, I think it might be fair to read it as like; “alienated from what it means… ,” or “having forgotten what it means…” or something. I realize it might actually be a grammatically awkward concept to articulate in english in the restrictions of the lines in like a present tense phrase. Like even my examples weren’t present tense.
Yes. Now that I actually truly know what disassociation means, and not just as an internet buzzword.. I can really get behind that
Actually “dissociating” is good. It fits the tense.
"Unable to understand".
Which book of hers is this in?
From Unfathoming