During an Enchantment in the Life
by Brenda Hillman
(published in her 2022 book, In a Few Minutes Before Later (Wesleyan University Press), and also here
Do you love a living person
absolutely? Tell them now.
In a half-unwieldy life you made, under
the hyaline sky, while the dead
drank from zigzag pools nearby,
if they saved you in your wild incapacities,
in timing of the world’s harm
in a little pettiness in your own heart while others took
your madrigals in shreds to a tribunal,
when others said you should feel grateful
to be minimally adequate for the world’s
triple exposure or some tired committee...
The ones who love us, how do they
break through our defenses?
We’re tired today. Come back later.
Their baffled voices melting our wax walls
with a candle, the ones who understand
what being is — the glowing, the broken,
the wheels, the brave ones —
they have their courage,
you have yours,,,;
when you meet the one you love,
it is so rare. When you meet
the one who loves you, it is extremely rare.
If you click on the link, you will go to The New York Times, where Victoria Chang selected this poem for the Sunday NYT Magazine. Chang shares her thoughts on this poem.
But here are mine. This poem has a lot of things in it that always draw me to a poem: a great title, a question to start with, and a command. Hillman has all three, and we are not only still in the first stanza, we haven't even gotten to line 3!
The third line starts a sentence that extends all the way through stanza 2 and finally ends in the third stanza. The pace of this sentence matches what is being said. And that sentence brings us to another question. Yea!
"The ones who love us" is the term Hillman uses. It is not fancy, but here it is powerful, as the poet describes how those people get through to us. She is calling them out to give them respect.
The you from the first stanza reappears in the last stanza, and it is to acknowledge that bravery is not only characteristic of the ones who love you, the reader, but also you. The poet begins and ends by speaking directly to the reader; in between, of course, Hillman's speaker uses "our," which includes we readers, but is not as personal. By using that you, the reader feels seen and understood.
That feeling continues with the ending, and (unless you are a narcissist) concludes with something we all know: finding someone to love is great, truly, but finding someone who loves us is even better.
Is that ending joyful? Despondent? Hopeful? Bitter? Nostalgic? I think it depends on where the reader's head is at. Hillman has left the tone open to interpretation, which can be off-putting, but by pulling readers in from the start, it works gloriously here.
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