I heard words
and words fullof holes
aching. Speech
is a mouth.
In this passage from his poem "The Language," Creeley is grappling with the failures of language and communication. His speaker hears "words full of holes" suggesting that for every word he puts down on the page, there is always something missing or lacking. This effect is further amplified by the use of the word "aching," suggesting that this lack is a painful one. The final phrase, "speech is a mouth," seems definitive, but is actually, again, implying that there is something important that is absent from the words mentioned earlier. By making "speech" equivalent to "a mouth," Creeley is saying that speech is as flawed as its human source.
I thought the instant of the one humanness
in Virgil's plan of it
was that it was of course human enough to die,
yet to come back, as he said, hoc opus, hic labor est.
In this stanza of the poem "Heroes," Creeley is offering a critique of Virgil's Aeneid. He states that he only finds a single instance of "humanness" in the entire work. He then refers to a scene in which Aeneas seeks to meet his father in the underworld and claims that it is the fact that Aeneas was "human enough to die" that made that particular moment remarkable. The criticism Creeley is putting forward is that the narrative as a whole lacks these moments and instead focuses on Aeneas as an inhuman entity, rushing off to dramatic tasks.
drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.
"I Know a Man" ends on a darkly humorous note, as the speaker's friend reminds him to watch the road more carefully. This comes after the speaker has voiced his existential concerns. What makes this an effective ending is that it swiftly brings the poem into immediate circumstances. The speaker had been distracted by his lofty thoughts and veered off while driving. However, this strangely connects with the speaker's main concerns, as he seems worried about the direction that the world is going in. In this way, the character of the friend has inadvertently engaged with the speaker without intending to do so.
went to the window,
pushed back, as you asked me to,the curtain, to see
the outline of the trees
in the night outside.
This scene from the poem "The World" shows the speaker pushing the curtains aside so his wife can see the trees outside their window. He is doing so because he wants to provide her with some amount of comfort. He also wants to fulfill his role as her husband and care for her, as is suggested by the phrase "as you asked me to." This is a reminder of the larger world ("the outline of the trees / in the night outside") that exists beyond their shared home. This image becomes particularly poignant at the poem's end, when the speaker's wife seems to recover slightly from her grief and pain. As the poem's title suggests, it is about her return to the world. This early passage offers a glimpse of that place she is reaching for.
Today, what is it that
is finally so helpless,
different, despairs of its own
statement, wants to
turn away, endlessly
to turn away.
These lines from the poem "For Love" are interesting in their relatively unromantic portrayal of the feeling. Using the words "helpless" and "despairs" seems to categorize love as something that inspires desperation and fear. The repetition of the phrase "turn away" suggests that the speaker believes love can make people frightened to become too close to someone. The passage is interesting because it delves into the most difficult aspects of loving another person, tying these painful and unnerving feelings to the overall definition it is moving towards.
