Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Michael McClure’s "Flower (6)" is a declaration of presence amid existential dissolution, a contemplation of power, transformation, and the cosmic interplay between structure and void. Like much of McClure’s poetry, it operates at the edge of mysticism and material reality, fusing biological, spiritual, and celestial imagery into a single moment of awareness. The poem reflects McClure’s deep engagement with the Beat ethos—its fascination with both destruction and transcendence, its reverence for the physical body and the cosmos, and its rejection of conventional boundaries between self and universe.

The opening line—“GIVE WAY OR BE SMITTEN INTO NOTHINGNESS and everlasting night.”—sets an ominous tone, a stark choice between surrender and obliteration. This phrase suggests a moment of ultimate confrontation, as if the speaker is being warned to yield to a greater force or be consumed by the abyss. The phrase everlasting night conjures images of annihilation, a dissolution into nothingness, but McClure immediately challenges this binary by asserting, “But I am here already, the tips of my fingers give off light.” This is a moment of resistance, an insistence on existence in the face of negation. The body itself, rather than succumbing to darkness, becomes luminous—suggesting both defiance and a kind of spiritual or biological self-generation.

The shift to the python—"What matters is the cold skin of the python and her muscled ribs that ripple over the crate."—introduces an image of raw, undomesticated power. The cold skin of the snake evokes a primal, reptilian presence, something ancient and relentless. The muscled ribs that ripple over the crate reinforce this sense of coiled, undulating force, as if the python is the embodiment of life’s relentless energy. The crate, possibly a human-made enclosure, suggests containment, yet the snake’s power is undiminished—its motion remains fluid, muscular, unstoppable. This contrast between confinement and the serpent’s unrelenting movement speaks to McClure’s recurring themes of biological instinct overpowering artificial constraints.

The next statement—"One band of power preceding another."—continues this idea of rolling, unceasing strength. The imagery suggests a kind of layered force, each band of power unfolding in succession. This could refer to the python’s body as it moves, but also to a broader understanding of energy and transformation—waves of force, cycles of existence, one moment leading inexorably to the next.

Then comes the declaration of absolute reduction—"There is ZERO, and the nonstructure of nada inside." Here, McClure acknowledges the abyss, but rather than treating it as annihilation, he frames it as nonstructure—a space not of absence, but of unformed potential. Nada (Spanish for "nothing") aligns this void with existential and mystical traditions, particularly the idea that emptiness is not merely negation, but a necessary condition for new creation. McClure often explores the relationship between nothingness and presence, treating zero as both a threshold and an opening.

The final assertion—"EVERY THING is FULL BLAST in its glory."—reverses the descent into void by affirming totality. The phrase FULL BLAST evokes an explosive, maximalist experience of reality, a vision of existence at its most intense. Rather than being overwhelmed by nothingness, the speaker embraces the overwhelming everything—an ecstatic, full-throttle immersion in the sheer vibrancy of being.

McClure closes with a cosmic metaphor—"A CLOUD of protein made of protein’s imagination in the spark of a star." This line bridges biology and astrophysics, presenting life as something generated within the vast processes of the universe. A CLOUD of protein suggests the primordial conditions for life, a swirling, chaotic mass from which organic existence emerges. But it is not merely matter—it is protein’s imagination, implying that even at the molecular level, there is creativity, intention, a kind of self-awareness inherent in the fabric of reality. This fusion of scientific and poetic language underscores McClure’s vision of life as something simultaneously material and transcendent, grounded in physicality yet driven by an unseen intelligence.

The location marker—"Bali"—adds a further layer of meaning. Bali, with its rich spiritual traditions, volcanic landscapes, and vibrant biodiversity, is a fitting setting for this meditation on presence, power, and transformation. It suggests that the poem’s insights arise in a place where nature and mysticism are deeply intertwined, where the primal and the sacred coexist.

"Flower (6)" encapsulates McClure’s fascination with energy, biology, and the cosmos, merging them into a meditation on the tension between destruction and affirmation. The poem resists easy nihilism, refusing to collapse into nothingness even as it acknowledges it. Instead, it asserts the persistence of life, movement, and radiant energy. The python, the bands of power, the explosion of FULL BLAST existence—all point toward a worldview where matter and consciousness are not separate, but intertwined. The final image of protein’s imagination in the spark of a star leaves us with the suggestion that everything, from the cellular to the cosmic, participates in a vast, self-creating dance. McClure’s vision is both scientific and spiritual, bodily and infinite, a testament to his ability to merge Beat exuberance with a deeper, more ancient pulse of the universe.

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