Lance
Wagner's Commentary (06-03-2001)
While I do not feel that
it represents the pinnacle of her poetry, I believed since this site's
inception that Mind Set Adrift should be the first of Raychel's works
to be published.
Raychel's
minimalist approach is clearly on display here. Consisting of a
scant 17 lines, only 3 of which contain more than 3 words, the poem
displays Raychel's penchant for brevity and enjambment. However,
as is often the case in her work, this is not to say that the poem is
short on content. To the contrary, her work lays itself out on a
road of logical thought, like the center line on a highway, and allows
you to follow that road on a similar personal journey.
It is
important to note that where the journey takes the reader is often
different from where it takes the poet herself. Raychel
understood that by minimizing the details and events allowed the
reader to create his or her own attachment to the poem, and by doing
so allows the reader to free his or her mind to take a separate
journey. This work addresses that very issue up-front,
acknowledging that dreaming takes you back to your past for both pains
and glories. This theme of freedom while remaining chained to
the past is universal, and make the poem perfect as an introduction to
Raychel's life in poems and memories.
Sharon
Wolfe's Commentary (06-03-2001)
From my count Lance spent 229 words describing Raychel's poem of 43
words. Personally I like Mind Set Adrift. It sounds like a
prayer.
Painseeker
Reader Anis Nin's Commentary (06-12-2001)
Whereas I agree with Lance on the fact that poets write to allow the
readers to go within themselves, I do not suggest this poem solely
exists for that one reason. I actually write "hidden messages"
(if you will) myself, to express myself while at the same time
allowing the readers to conjure up their own experiences. For two
reasons: 1) That other artists can abstract my work into a meaning
that fits themselves so that they might appreciate it more and 2)
Because I know some listeners care to understand what I am feeling
rather than associate it with their own lives. I believe that the poem
"Mind Set Adrift" is from insight upon her present life from
the past hand she had been dealt associated with her family. The term
"midnight mind" is associated with night. For the following
reason's: Nightfall is proven to be the wellness-state of mind for
vulnerability. Darkness comforts us as adults because it is the one
moment we feel we are able to be ourselves without having suffer any consequences.
It's funny as a child we fear the dark because it is unknown but in
adulthood we embrace it because we feel protected by the shadows. The
Darkness of the night and it's shadows somehow compels us to be whole
because within it our good and evil are inseparable and remain often
unexplored. She also states in "a captive...with unlimited
freedom" that she felt trapped into need for her family because
she was not old enough to understand the world at her younger age and
because she is too young to separate from them. However, she expressed
that she finds freedom to view it as an outsider with her imagination
because within that perspective their are no limits. "Set sail to
parts unknown to places already discovered" is her way of saying
she is an individual and she gives herself credit for this yet at the
same time she knows that no matter what she discovers as the
individual she is, she knows that others have been lead to the same
judgment. Just because she is going through it during a separate time
doesn't mean she is the only one to experience such. (I believe
perhaps this theory gave her the courage to confront a lot of her
personal issues/demons). "Occasionally stopping to find buried
treasures full of pleasures and painful memories"- She could be
telling of her constant state of mind over seeing her brother go
through the things he did with the family. She is stating that her
brother was loved by her and was noticed as a jewel although that
outlook was contradicted by the parents because every memory to be
noted as a treasure also held a painful scene of the abusive father
and the mother rushing to the aid of the abusive instead of the
abused. Finally, we come to a compelling ending. Which is what sticks
out as a complete sentence after the writing is read. A poet always
tries to make a lasting mark, a sting for the emotions or better yet;
the fill that voids the whole. Though these lines are separated this
is the finale that resumes the statement. "past, present, and
fears of the future" ... "full of pleasured and painful
memories" ... meaning that all is lived or left to the living,
but never forgotten... good nor bad.
