Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Ann Lauterbach’s "Not That It Could Be Finished" is a richly layered poem that explores themes of fragmentation, consumption, and the continuous cycle of interpretation and meaning-making. Its fluid, abstract language resists easy categorization, inviting readers into a reflective space where objects, thoughts, and actions intermingle. The poem meditates on the tension between completeness and the inherent unfinished nature of existence, art, and understanding.

The opening lines—"She holds a conversation with her ornaments, / stray or contingent, heaped in patches"—establish the central dynamic of the poem: the interplay between the speaker (or subject) and the objects of her attention. The "ornaments," described as "stray or contingent," evoke a sense of randomness and impermanence. These items, "heaped in patches," are not neatly ordered but scattered, emphasizing their provisional and incomplete nature. The act of holding a "conversation" with them suggests an attempt to impose meaning or coherence on what resists such efforts.

The ornaments seem to implore, "Collect me…into an assembly; construe us / like any morning onto any day." This plea reflects the human impulse to organize and interpret, to turn disparate elements into a cohesive whole. The phrase "like any morning onto any day" underscores the repetitive, almost ritualistic nature of this effort, linking it to the cyclical patterns of life. Yet the process remains imperfect, as the poem’s title reminds us: the task of assembling and construing "could not be finished."

The poem transitions into a meditation on comfort and adaptability: "Bring us forward notch by notch / into a paradigm of comfort / to be clasped: any cup will do." The "cup" here becomes a symbol of containment, a vessel for the intangible. The notion that "any cup will do" underscores the flexibility of human perception, the willingness to adapt form to content, or meaning to context. Yet, the openness of this approach also reflects a sense of arbitrariness, as though the attempt to find comfort or coherence is as much an act of projection as discovery.

The line "Take a seed / and blow it toward the curtain" introduces an image of transformation and potential. The curtain, described as "like a bright shield / hugging breasts into radiance," serves as both a physical barrier and a symbol of concealment and revelation. It is "seen and spoken of and desired," underscoring its dual role as an object of attention and a mediator of perception. The act of blowing a seed toward it suggests a gesture of hope or creativity, an attempt to bridge the gap between what is concealed and what is revealed.

The poem then turns to the idea of silence and its capacity to "fit": "Will any silence fit? So many / columns of air are held upright / in inebriated passage." Silence, often associated with stillness and absence, is here dynamic, embodied in "columns of air" that are "inebriated," suggesting movement and instability. The "paper stacks / brittle under the weight / of what was news to attentive readers" evokes the fragility of recorded history and the ephemeral nature of what was once deemed important. These paper stacks serve as a metaphor for the transient and accumulative nature of human knowledge.

The ornaments, speaking again, say, "Stare at us…we are windows propped up against the sky, / quotations of light waiting to sail / into your aperture." This passage draws attention to the act of seeing and its reciprocal relationship with the seen. The "windows" are not fixed but "propped up," emphasizing their provisional state. The "quotations of light" suggest fragments of understanding or insight, waiting to be interpreted. The repeated phrase "because because / and now now now" reflects the immediacy and urgency of experience, even as it resists definitive explanation.

The poem concludes with a striking and unsettling image: "And the good body / is pulled over the original rapacious body / like a huge sock." This metaphor of the "good body" as a covering for a more primal, "rapacious" form highlights the tension between civilization and instinct, restraint and desire. The "cornucopia / of sour wind and dust emptied into the firmament" suggests a purging of the unwanted or uncontainable, a release of the residual and chaotic into the infinite.

"Not That It Could Be Finished" resists linear interpretation, embodying its title in its refusal to offer closure or resolution. The poem’s fragmented structure and associative leaps mirror the incomplete, ongoing nature of thought and perception. Through its vivid imagery and layered metaphors, Lauterbach explores the human impulse to find meaning in the midst of disorder, even as she acknowledges the impossibility of ever fully achieving it. The poem’s meditations on objects, language, and the body invite readers to reflect on their own processes of interpretation and creation, leaving them with a sense of both the limitations and the possibilities inherent in the act of making meaning.

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