Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Michael McClure’s "Grafting: 5" is an ecstatic declaration of self-transformation, fusing divine imagery, animalistic hunger, and theatrical embodiment into a singular poetic experience. The poem brims with the energy of metamorphosis, as the speaker asserts an overwhelming sense of self-expansion, invoking both the mythic and the biological in a surreal visionary moment. McClure, deeply influenced by Beat poetics and a biologically driven mysticism, crafts a piece that explores identity, desire, and the interplay between creation and destruction.

The opening statement—"I AM A GOD WITH A HUGE FACE."—establishes the poem’s tone of grandiosity and transformation. The speaker does not merely claim divinity but describes a corporeal, almost monstrous presence: a deity whose face is immense, whose mouth spills forth lions and eagles. These animals, symbols of power and predation, suggest a raw, elemental force emerging from within, reinforcing McClure’s recurring theme of the body as a site of primal energy. The god-figure here is not distant or detached; it is visceral, open-mouthed, teeming with life.

The details of "Big white square teeth and a red-purple tongue." ground the image in physicality, lending it an almost grotesque realism. The juxtaposition of predatory animals and human anatomy hints at the idea that within the poet—or within all humans—there exists a wild, untamed essence. The phrase "magenta clouds around my head and this is my throne room." furthers the mythic imagery, painting the scene as a surreal, dreamlike vision of power and self-possession.

McClure’s use of theatrical language—"Actors perform the drama of my being inside of you, WEARING YOUR SKIN."—creates an eerie doubling of self and other. The idea that one’s inner world is being played out by actors inside another person suggests an intertwining of identities, a merging of performer and spectator, creator and creation. This moment aligns with McClure’s broader poetic interest in embodiment—his belief that poetry and biology are linked, that identity is fluid, and that the self is an ever-evolving performance.

The declaration—"Our hunger is greater than our fear."—becomes a key thematic shift in the poem. Here, hunger represents desire, ambition, the need to consume and create, while fear embodies hesitation, doubt, or self-imposed limitation. In placing hunger above fear, McClure frames his poetic vision as one of excess, where the drive to experience overrides hesitation. This sentiment resonates with the countercultural impulses of the Beat movement—rejecting caution, embracing raw immediacy, living at the edge of instinct.

The poem then moves into a more grounded setting, shifting from celestial imagery to something tactile and earthly: "My shoe slips on the red brick that is coated with slime of algae and moss." The speaker, despite his godlike proclamation, is still bound to the material world, still subject to the small, physical realities of existence. The slime of algae and moss introduces a sense of organic decay and persistence, nature reclaiming space, much like McClure’s vision of poetry as something both timeless and deeply biological.

The next image—"the same fear that is ever there makes a hollyhock in the darkness where water moths with billowing antennae and black velvet heads vie in midair for the senses of their ladies."—is one of McClure’s signature fusions of nature and the erotic. Fear, instead of paralyzing, makes something—a hollyhock, a flower associated with fertility and growth. The mention of water moths locked in courtship underscores the idea that even in darkness, life persists, instinct guides, and connection is inevitable.

The final line—"A SMALL POEM is a soul like an opal."—serves as a quiet yet profound closing statement. The comparison of a poem to a soul suggests that poetry is not merely an art form but a distilled essence of being, a microcosm of life’s complexity. The choice of opal as a metaphor is telling: opals are known for their shifting colors, their internal fire, their ability to refract light in unpredictable ways. This suggests that poetry, like the soul, is multi-dimensional, ever-changing, and luminous in its depth.

"Grafting: 5" encapsulates McClure’s poetic ethos—his blending of the bodily and the spiritual, his exaltation of raw experience, and his fascination with the animalistic impulses that drive human existence. The poem’s oscillation between godhood and physicality, performance and authenticity, hunger and fear, creates a dynamic tension that mirrors the poet’s lifelong exploration of identity as something both vast and intimate. In the end, McClure leaves us with a vision of poetry not as mere words on a page, but as a living, breathing entity—an opalescent soul that shifts and shines in the darkness.

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