Morning Email and My Reaction

I just received this poem and the following “discussion question” in an email from a poet friend. He’s a friend and he’s a poet, but our poetry always has and probably always will differ greatly.



One-Word Poem
by David R. Slavitt

Motherless.



2. It is regrettable not to have a mother. Is the purpose of the poem to
convey an emotion to the reader? Does the poet suppose that this is the
saddest word in the language? Do you agree or disagree? Can you suggest a
sadder word?




I would like to know the person who cannot come up with a sadder word. No, in honesty, I’d like to be that person. I wish I was someone who had the blind faith and love in family that “motherless” could be the saddest word in the entire language. Can you imagine? Does this person truly exist? Is this discussion question written with the intent of making us angry, or sad, or hurt? On that note, is the poem written for that reason? Yes, it’s only one word, but yes, I am a poet, which means I as a reader have as much influence on the meaning of this poem (now that it’s been published and put out into the world) as the poet does himself. If I were to analyze this poem, I would absolutely argue that Slavitt is trying to remind all of us our of our “motherless” lives. Why else would it be so powerful? You, reader of my silly little blog, did you not feel a twinge of sadness within you at reading the poem?

And I guess I must address the question of whether or not this does in fact qualify as a poem. Yes. I’d like to leave it at that, but I will elaborate a little. It seems so simple to me that this is absolutely a poem, and a good one at that, but so many of the other numbered discussion questions (I always find it humorous when numbers are involved with poetry, even when they’re necessary and helpful) dealt with an expected debate of why or why not it is or isn’t. Well, there’s reason number one. If it wasn’t a poem, what would all this talk be about? And, the main reason, it invokes emotion. Not all poems, and not even all good poems, will invoke emotion in everyone, but I find it hard to imagine a person who would not be affected by this poem. Who in the world could walk away from this poem and not think about it as she turned the key in the ignition, or pushed the lobby button in the elevator? And would that person not be questioning why it has affected her? Not that her day has been ruined or an overwhelming sense of sadness has occurred, but that in this world we all live and take part in, family matters. Family is important and even to someone like me who spent the last weekend absolutely tortured in a world I don’t belong in further proving my great dislike for the woman who is my mother, this poem gets in. This poem gets in because it’s an idea and an emotion and an implied question and the future and your fear.

Still though, this doesn’t come close to “the saddest word in the language.” When I first read that question, I scoffed. With a furrowed brow, I almost couldn’t help but say aloud to my computer screen “how about friendless?” And then, with a relaxed with sadness expression, I asked silently to myself “how about loveless?”

A notion which brought me here to my own writing. Because I realized that by asking if “motherless” is the saddest word, the questioner (or questioners all working at a conference table, arguing over where to take this discussion) inherently believes that “motherless” could be synonymous with “loveless”.

I hate them for that. I hate them for being able to make that connection. I have a mother, and I have love, but those two entities are far separated in my world.