Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"The Geese" by Jorie Graham is a contemplative and richly textured poem that explores themes of passage, connection, and the often elusive nature of meaning. The poem's structure is free-flowing, mirroring the natural movement of geese and the intricate webs of spiders, which serve as central metaphors for time, existence, and the human experience.

The poem begins with a vivid observation of geese in flight: "Today as I hang out the wash I see them again, a code / as urgent as elegant, / tapering with goals. / For days they have been crossing. We live beneath these geese." The geese are described as a "code," suggesting a deeper significance to their migration, embodying both urgency and elegance. This description sets the tone for the poem, framing the geese's passage as a metaphor for the passage of time and life's journey.

Graham continues to reflect on the significance of the geese's migration, "as if beneath the passage of time, or a most perfect heading. / Sometimes I fear their relevance." The geese's flight represents a perfect, purposeful trajectory, contrasting with the speaker's fear of relevance and the potential lack of meaning in their own life. The geese's path is fixed and certain, whereas the speaker grapples with uncertainty.

The poem then shifts to the spiders, drawing a parallel between their webs and the geese's flight paths: "the spiders imitate the paths the geese won't stray from, / imitate them endlessly to no avail: / things will not remain connected, / will not heal." The spiders' futile attempts to mimic the geese underscore a theme of disconnection and the fragility of order. Despite their efforts, the spiders cannot achieve the same coherence, highlighting the inherent chaos and fragmentation of existence.

Graham delves deeper into this theme of fragmentation: "the world thickens with texture instead of history, / texture instead of place." This line suggests that our perception of the world is increasingly defined by surface details (texture) rather than a coherent narrative (history) or a sense of belonging (place). The small fear of the spiders, with their endless binding, symbolizes the human attempt to impose order and meaning in a world that resists it.

The speaker then considers the implications of this web-like reality: "And if these spiders had their way, / chainlink over the visible world, / would we be in or out?" This rhetorical question challenges the reader to think about boundaries and inclusion. The image of a "chainlink" world evokes a sense of entrapment and division, raising questions about our place within the structures we create.

The poem transitions to a more introspective tone, with the speaker reflecting on a feeling of incompleteness: "There is a feeling the body gives the mind / of having missed something, a bedrock poverty, like falling / without the sense that you are passing through one world, / that you could reach another / anytime." This passage captures a sense of existential dislocation, where the speaker feels disconnected from both their own body and the world around them. The geese, representing an unattainable ideal, and the spiders, representing futile efforts, frame this feeling of perpetual delay and incompleteness.

The poem concludes with a profound realization: "Instead the real / is crossing you, / your body an arrival / you know is false but can't outrun. And somewhere in between / these geese forever entering and / these spiders turning back, / this astonishing delay, the everyday, takes place." The "real" is not a fixed destination but an ongoing process that "crosses" the speaker. The body, though perceived as an "arrival," is acknowledged as a transient, false sense of permanence. The everyday existence, marked by the constant interplay of forward-moving geese and backward-turning spiders, is where life truly unfolds.

In "The Geese," Jorie Graham masterfully intertwines natural imagery with existential reflections to explore the complexities of human experience. The poem's rich metaphors and contemplative tone invite readers to consider the tensions between order and chaos, movement and stasis, and the elusive nature of meaning in our lives. Through the lens of geese and spiders, Graham captures the perpetual dance of striving for connection and understanding in a world that is inherently fragmented and transient.

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