Chidago Canyon Petroglyph, Defacement, Detail on Next
High Noon
Drinking
High Noon
on a bench
beside you,
watching
the white-
washed
world…
memories
of Sewickley–
in the rain
a fire somewhere
the living
dance to
_________________
James Croal Jackson
Review by Tamer Mostafa
The first striking element of this poem is its form—short lines, most often containing a single word, which allows the reader to slowly conjure the brevity of what’s being said. Even though this poem is “short,” the slow tempo and deliberate cadence of each line makes the poem feel longer, perhaps even disquiet in a sense. Every word is important. Every word holds brevity, so much so that the “you” of the poem is ambiguous. Is the “you” the speaker’s loved one, a prior machination of the world, or is it us, the audience? We don’t need to answer that question, but it’s mere indefiniteness is powerful.
Another important nuance of this poem relates to distance, both in the physical sense, and the emotional/psychological realm between the unnamed speaker and the world. The speaker drinking a “High Noon” in the context of this poem suggests a nostalgic remembrance of a life, or world, that once was. The lines “white-/ washed/ world” evoke a melancholic cynicism that shapes the speaker’s memories of a place (“Sewickley”) that is named in the poem, but left to the audience’s imagination to bring to life. Giving the audience this conscientious choice is meaningful because we’re forced, in an intentionally short amount of time, to end with conflicting elements of the natural world (rain and fire) symbiotically giving space for the living to navigate.
Beautifully written poem.