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O
Orphani
Dec 20, 2009 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

The question of bread

In all truth
A mouthful of bread
I did not plant the thought of rain

Is it enough
When hunger cries
To fill my hope
With loves dying

What grass then grows
That is not dead
without giving life

Would I live
in a hungry world

This mouthful of bread
Is all the questions ever asked

It's death is my own
If one mouthful cannot fill two

Is it better to live for a dying world
Or die for a living one
This is the question of bread
— Orphani, Dec 20, 2009
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Critiques

Roscoe Lane

Roscoe Lane

16 years 5 months ago

Thought provoking

Very thought provoking, and evokes a little self searching when you think about it. great. Roscoe...
Nordic cloud

Nordic cloud

16 years 5 months ago

What grass than

What grass than grows.........( thEn?)
 Is all the questions ever asked.......(The question, those questionS) If one mouthful can not fill two.........(cannot) Those are only little things I'm not quite wholly with it, Barry I need some explanation that's me Love Ann.
O

Orphani

16 years 5 months ago

You are the only one to ask

You are the only one to ask . Thank you so much for the spelling corrections.I qm very limited in spelling and grammar and deeply appreciate any help in this regard. To answer your question about the meaning it is this.: In my understanding love is the only perfect way in the universe. It is all truth.Bread is symbolic of life I did not create the rain, that is part of the interrelationship between the rain, and wheat, that is nessasary for life. This is a gift i paid nothing for.The gift to all mankind. 2nd stanza Asserts this : When the hungry cry, and the idea of love therefor is dying with it -- Can I be hopeful in the face of this Third stanza: That which dosn't contribute to this principle is dead.The grass refered to is wheat.It contains within itself the seeds of life. If those seeds dont germinate and make more wheat or are not harvested to feed man or the animals of what value is it it would soon vanish or die out. fourth stanza Can I truly be alive in the full sense of the word when I know the extent of human starvation.No I would lose touch with my roots wither and die. fith stanza With out sustenance man would perish from the earth and have no voice, therefore it is a part of every question sixth stanza If I don't share my bread then I die with my brother. seventh stanza I will leave to you. You are the first and only one to ask. So the key is yours. Cherish it.B
Nordic cloud

Nordic cloud

16 years 5 months ago

Oh what key?

Dear Barry, What key, I wonder, the one that opens all doors to your theme, that fills the universe with your message, the one closest to your heart? That key is for all to use as we humans meet and part, live and die, become ill, and survive hardships, or not, it will give strength to all and sustain the changing of the seasons the coming of the rains and the sun, it will in the end save the understandings of the human condition and conquer the fates that inevitably will turn this planet once more to the vagaries of solar winds, we shall loose our surface cover, the most beautiful living garden on this earth's surface and become no-thing. BUT while we have this extreme privilege of living in and on it we save our sanity by loving all it is and supporting all with this great love, life's magic wand of fate. I perhaps understand the message do I Barry? Love, yes love to you from Ann in the snow. Love to all here too.
O

Orphani

16 years 5 months ago

There are those things that

There are those things that cannot be explained. They must be revealed from with in. This is one of those things.Are you skieing down the mountain? Or partway down, and tumbling the rest, in your politicly incorrect fox fur. Iv'e given your name, and address to a few activist groups, and they should arrive shortly so RUN ! Thanks again for your help. Barry ,,,o,,
Seren

Seren

16 years 5 months ago

Dear Barry

I was recently given some advice and I am going to pass it on ... dont make your meanings so convoluted that you alienate your reader, recently I wrote a poem that had a meaning in it for me that was a little sketchy and it threatened to loose the message, ... I have read your explanation above and understand what you mean ... but simply this one without the explanation was confusing ... I would rerite and change a few words round ... after all if your reader is confused you cant always supply a explanation IE:- if you ever published ... just some advice and only suggestions there maybe others that will get it and I partically do but there are stanza's that you lost me completely .. kind regards love Jayne
O

Orphani

16 years 5 months ago

Thank you for pointing this

Thank you for pointing this out Jayne but actually you and Ann are both right the poem dictates the meaning in many ways as Ann suggests.Some poems if they have to be explained will lose their true essence or quality as the explanation can only offer a dim light to enterpret it. Yet in other poems I have had to do what you suggest as in "subway".This is a fascinating issue to me ,and one I am studying. You think this ones cryptic ? Try reading Ezra Pound. Their still trying to untie "Cantos". He was a genious,But he was arragent, and played with peoples heads becouse it fed his ego.Explaining some poems, and this does not apply to all, is somthing like explaining yourself.Do you think if you try you will succeed? Can Love be put into words that does justice to the true meaning?I could spend my whole life searching the meaning.I know it best by knowing that.This brings us to the Modernist poets of the American Avan-garde movement that breaks with the traditions and conventions of the past.I don't say I agree to a large extent with their philosopical approach to poetry but I like some of their conceptual realizations and want to play with them a bit. Yet on the other corner there is Frost with his strict sense of order, and convention.Yet the deeper meanings of his poems lay hidden in a cryptic puzzle.To me here lies the essence of what I consider good poetry for me would be a form of analogous incorporation or blending of these elements. The poem above was deeply personal and as Ann said had to invoke on a personal level of mutual understanding.I myself cannot fully understand it.Somtimes in trying to bring a poem into a more clear focus we lose the forest for the trees.Thank you for taking the time to comment as I deeply resect your views. Barry ,,,o,,
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 5 months ago

Against, the tide, I turn.

Against, the tide, I turn. I love your brilliant poem and see that Ann corrected the incidental spelling errors. Imo, poetry can be very concrete (and even have that form), poetry can have significant meaning to the poet, and the reader having traveled the same in/out roads can so identify, and poetry can allude to something that is not intellectually understood, but somehow communicated. Yours is of the third kind. My personal favourite. Straight from the gut. ~Anna Don’t let your victories go to your head, or your failures go to your heart.
Nordic cloud

Nordic cloud

16 years 5 months ago

Oh Anna, dear sister

Dear Sister you too are so right, all should not be revealed at first sight!! Leaving nothing for afters. If one hits a chord with another poet she/he will understand, but all the same I loved getting Barry's explanation, that too revealed another way of looking at the poem and one which became so infinitely richer for me to see. There are many types of poetry and we are more, or less, I mean clever or not, to decipher the meanings according with our own knowledge and understanding of things. Many of your poems are ones "somehow communicated" and wouldn't be themselves with explanations. So right you are like the angel of poetry guiding our thoughts to greater understandings. Love to you and Barry once more Ann in deep snow!
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 5 months ago

And that’s why I’m a

And that's why I'm a student and teacher of nonduality... that you asked and Barry answered, was perfect for your needs (& others perhaps)... that I prefer not to understand the how's, why's and the wherefore's is perfect for my comprehension (& others perhaps). It's all good. Hugs, Anna Don’t let your victories go to your head, or your failures go to your heart.
O

Orphani

16 years 5 months ago

Choosing not to understand

Choosing not to understand is opposed to comprehension, untill one knows what they choose not to comprehend .B

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