Summary
The speaker finishes voicing his concerns, wondering if he could stave off the feeling of darkness by buying a large car. His friend tells him he should just drive the car he is in right now. Then, his friend adds that he should watch the road.
Analysis
As the poem progresses, it moves away from the speaker's more abstract worries into more immediate things. In the second half of the text, the reader finally hears the friend's side of the conversation, and his comments are of an entirely different strain. He seems to believe that the answer to the speaker's existential dread lies in material objects. He seems to miss the speaker's anxieties entirely.
In the third stanza, the speaker finishes his comments on the "darkness" mentioned in the second stanza. He doesn't even know where to begin, wondering what "can we do against / it, or else, shall we & / why not." It is as if he cannot even properly define the problem itself and feels entirely overwhelmed by it. This string of incomplete ideas ("do against it," "shall we," and "why not") point to the fact that the speaker is struggling to fit multiple ideas into a single statement. He cannot even decide how to properly react to this darkness, signaling how overwhelming it has been for him. The use of an ampersand in place of the word "and," also connects with the speaker's hurried delivery. Finally, in an off-the-cuff comment, the speaker wonders if he should just "buy a big goddamn car." The use of the word "goddamn" implies the speaker's frustration with this idea. He does not really think it will dispel his worries about the darkness, but he recognizes it as a common way of coping. Here Creeley seems to be making a remark on the way that the society around him was turning to this kind of materialism for respite. The gap between the speaker's question and his proposed answer suggests its futility. He knows buying things will not give him peace, but sees no other alternatives being offered.
The final stanza takes a turn for the more immediate. The friend begins his part of the conversation: "drive, he sd, for / christ’s sake, look / out where yr going." He begins by telling the speaker to just "drive" as a means of keeping these worries at bay. He seems to think that the speaker will feel better if he pays closer attention to what is in front of him. This advice quickly becomes literal, when he says "for christ's sake look out where yr going." The friend seems to be saying that the speaker has not been paying close enough attention to the road, indirectly implying that he has been distracted by all of his abstract concerns. This last line is well-placed on multiple levels. In a literal sense, it brings the poem back into the world of present concerns; the speaker needs to drive more carefully. But it also humorously literalizes the idea that the speaker is lacking direction, as he both feels lost and can't seem to drive correctly. It is also comical in that the speaker just asked about buying a car but he is driving dangerously. It is a moment in which the speaker and his friend seem to be communicating on entirely different frequencies, but the ending has somehow brought them together. The confusion and uncertainty of the exclaimed comment fits well with the overall anxiety of the speaker's perspective.
Taken as a whole, the poem is Creeley's attempt to show a struggle for meaning. The speaker feels lost in the dark, unable even to formulate a response to the problems of the world that surrounds him. His friend offers little constructive advice, falling back on material things as a means of pushing down despair. The poem's slightly comical ending is also reflective of the state of things the speaker sees: aimless and scattered.
