I realize now that when you write a poem in a calligram form in microsoft word and then try and copy/paste that poem into a blog post things don’t go so smoothly. Well this blog post is meant to be a response/imitation Jeffrey Pethybridge’s Striven, The Bright Treatise.
The poem is about a young Japanese philosophy student named Misao Fujimura who in 1903 committed suicide by jumping from the top of a waterfall. I learned about him when reading The Autobiography of Satomi Myodo. although Wikipedia doesn’t mention this, this source claims him to have written in his note that “life is incomprehensible,” a phrase denoting his despair. While the root cause of his despair is a failed romantic relationship, his death began to encapsulate a general sense of social unrest during this period of rapid urbanization and modernization in Japan.
The poem highlights the belief in Chinese and Japanese Buddhism that things in the Microcosm, i.e. your family or work or social life can have effects in the macrocosm, i.e. the natural world. That is why Misao (at least in this poem) jumps, because he believes that the failure of his microcosm is the failure of the macrocosm. With not hope in one there can be no hope in the either.
Sorry about the word document format but it’s all I could manage. I tried to depict the jumping off of the cliff and landing in the water below. The large line splitting the poem is meant to be the water line. The last line of the poem is supposed to be the body after the ripples have calmed.
Patrick,
This was an intriguing post. I like your imitation and the fact that you incorporated the water line and the way the lines seems to sort of fall into that line. I’m not sure if you did this on purpose but lines 1-7 if you take the last words of each line it makes it’s own sad story: Aokigahara go. Young Misao to Kegon Free from the alienated young love.
In another one of my classes we talked about how many modernist writers liked to incorporate the above the surface/below the surface symbology in their texts. For example, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. Conrad, floating down the Congo in his boat, often chooses to only deal with the superficial world (above the water) and avoids delving deeper into the real meaning of things (below the water). It’s interesting that your poem incorporates that water line because it could very well symbolize the same thing. For example, above the water line Misao is worried about graspable, micro problems. After the water line he “knows” about the macro world and the cosmos. He delves deeper, ie. goes below the surface, even when it’s attained via suicide.
Great job! I really like your imitation and all the thought you put behind it.
Kady
I had know idea about the subplot in lines 1-7. It’s cool that you saw that. I also like the above/below the surface symbology you mention as well and your example of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Thanks for the comment Kady!