Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Jack Hirschman’s "Jackson Pollock" is a dynamic and intense poetic meditation on the legendary Abstract Expressionist painter, capturing both his artistic process and the violent inevitability of his death. The poem unfolds in three sections, each reflecting a different aspect of Pollock’s life and work: his approach to painting, the cosmic and historical implications of his art, and his tragic demise. Hirschman’s language is fluid, fragmented, and kinetic, mirroring Pollock’s signature drip technique, where motion, chance, and precision coalesce into a raw, visceral experience.

The opening lines—"He met it straight met it empty, / the white of its eye the space that was longing,"—frame Pollock’s relationship with the canvas as an act of confrontation. The "white of its eye" positions the blank surface as something sentient, a force that must be reckoned with rather than simply filled. Hirschman presents Pollock as a warrior or a dancer engaging in a ritual, sizing up the space, physically measuring it against himself. The phrase "the breadth of the only thing certain, / his body" emphasizes the physicality of Pollock’s process—his art was an extension of his being, not just an intellectual or aesthetic exercise.

The line "peered over / the rim of, down the long iris of / It," suggests that Pollock’s gaze penetrated beyond the material surface, as if his art was an act of discovery rather than mere creation. This is reinforced by the description of his painting as a "roar," an almost primal exertion of self onto the canvas. Hirschman’s use of phrases like "streaking whatever came to brush, riptooth bits of glass slurs of this moment only in this color" echoes the chaotic spontaneity of Pollock’s technique—his paintings were immediate, unrepeatable expressions of the moment. The mention of "clumsy big oafed or obedient thin / as the wrist" underscores the balance in Pollock’s work between wild abandon and controlled precision. The section culminates in the phrase "This is the making of It— / and signed with the flair of a boy his name / to this ideogram," suggesting that Pollock’s art was both a deliberate mark and an unconscious gesture, an ideogram that defined his existence.

The second section expands the scope from Pollock’s individual artistry to a broader, almost cosmic dimension. Hirschman describes his paintings as "a continent of sky and sea perdita, star-inscape upon fishglint superimposed." This imagery evokes vastness and movement, as if Pollock’s canvases contained entire worlds, celestial in scope. The reference to "the first house of a zodiac he has made of the cool moon on your body" suggests a mystical, almost astrological significance to his work—his paintings mapping something beyond the visible.

The reference to "Roshima" (a probable nod to Hiroshima) and "Yorozuyo-bashi Bridge" introduces a historical weight to Pollock’s art. The shadows of Hiroshima recall the atomic bomb’s devastation, linking Pollock’s frenzied creative energy to the destructive forces of history. The chilling line—"Moreover there are women who cannot have her child anymore."—brings the consequences of war and violence into the realm of bodily loss, infertility, and irreversible damage. Hirschman implies that Pollock’s art, like the bomb, is an explosion, an event that alters the world permanently. The phrase "I am moved by rhythms I no longer understand nor want to want to," suggests a surrender to the overwhelming nature of Pollock’s work—it resists easy interpretation, existing in a space beyond logic or comprehension.

The final section delivers Pollock’s inevitable encounter with death, described with the same vivid intensity as his painting. "The moment it met him head on he knew death was a hand he must shake." Here, death is not an accident but something Pollock recognizes and submits to, a force as inevitable as his artistic impulses. The description—"it slapped him down / in the sentimental bounty of the roadster, stretched him on the screaming brake white as canvas,"—connects the crash to his painting. The "screaming brake" mimics the wild energy of his brushstrokes, and "white as canvas" suggests that his death was, in some sense, another final composition, an abstract expression of motion, force, and destruction.

The phrase "the last ritual of himself in poles slashing by in the moonlight" captures the violent imagery of the accident, the "poles slashing by" paralleling the bold, aggressive lines of his work. The final stanza—"the flush kept back, / the strain of the whole engine riveted on becoming easy again / as a line is, rounding the wheel, its eye dead white in the center he spatters against."—suggests that Pollock’s final moment was, like his paintings, an explosive release. The "flush kept back" implies a force held in tension until it bursts, much like his canvases, where energy is barely contained within the frame. The "eye dead white in the center he spatters against" reinforces the motif of the canvas as both a witness and a participant in his fate—he does not merely die; he spatters against the world, a final mark in a life of relentless motion.

Hirschman’s "Jackson Pollock" is an elegy, a tribute, and an enactment of Pollock’s artistic ethos. The poem does not simply describe his paintings; it embodies them in its erratic, fluid, and forceful language. Hirschman captures the essence of Pollock’s work—the collision of control and chaos, the necessity of motion, and the inevitability of destruction. In doing so, the poem becomes a reflection of Pollock himself: restless, defiant, and ultimately consumed by the very forces that defined his art.

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