Comments on: you know that song

By: Jason Mashak

Jason Mashak — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:39:55 +0000

“Stealthy and cheesy”??? Then it’s perfect! (what about “Stealth-Bombed Swisscapade” as a title?) I typically leave things untitled for a long time, then struggle to find a title only under the pressure of it going into print somewhere. I can understand the inclination to leave’m “untitled” but the editorial standard of using the first line in such cases motivates me to retain more control than that.

By: cerebella

cerebella — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:34:14 +0000

righteous you say so, jason. i like yr title tho. old movie static would be very stealthy and cheesy. like smegma.
usually i suck at titles because i’m headstrong or something &i don’t even try. i feel like i’m summing up my ‘souvenirs of my present-time states of consciousness’ (as m.tennison would say) with a little clever metaphor and that’s low.
know what i mean, jellehbean?

By: misener

misener — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:27:22 +0000

And here’s one more, just for good measure.

By: misener

misener — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:26:56 +0000

Jason, I think you won the “most comments of the year” award here.

By: Jason Mashak

Jason Mashak — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 09:07:57 +0000

The alien & special agent interpretations are uniquely American. Can’t recall what color the smoke was, but Wilco and other Tweedy endeavors were on heavy rotation then (and always, it seems). Cerebella, I think you just gave it a better title… “Old Movie Static”

By: cerebella

cerebella — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:58:28 +0000

gene, i think i love you for that comment. it rules.
this is like eraserhead. i love the discussion mystery poems prompt. it’s like laying on yr back with some friends and saying what you see in the clouds. kind of freudian, in a sense.

By: cerebella

cerebella — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:51:26 +0000

wow i totally see what you’re saying editor. this poem tastes like old movie static generating thru my limbic system.

By: Gene

Gene — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:26:26 +0000

This poem seems really straight forward to me: The author was blasted by some kind of alien. He is still barely alive but his body is smoldering from the alien’s heat ray. He is on his last breath. The alien approaches. He is many headed, like a hydra from an ancient myth that the author has read about, but, of course, never actually seen in person until now.

By: Jason Mashak

Jason Mashak — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 20:58:56 +0000

Gentlemen, many thanks for the feedback. Sometimes you just never know what’s what, and you just have to go with gut & instinct. It was earlier rejected, for whatever reasons, by Beloit Poetry Journal, Kenyon Review, Lilliput Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and Hayden’s Ferry Review. I’m glad it found an audience here.

I’m also grateful to hear the various interpretations, some of which I’d naturally never considered (I can’t decide which I like best, LOL). The moment that spawned it was an illusion of sorts, a flashbackesque revelation of the many moods/masks/etc. that the subject wore regularly. That said, it’s also a mirror in the same regard.

By: fogman

fogman — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:30:19 +0000

I’m really enjoying the many faces of interpretation brought to light here. Fact is, each of them are well-supported by the poem itself, though I think Misener’s plural “you” fades on subsequent reads. On first glance, I read the last line strictly as metaphor, indicating the complexity of the individual encountered. Adding the visual imagery, as noted by Travis, really deepens the impact of the metaphor and the poem. Not to mention the music, both as metaphorically referenced (“old song”) and as created via word choice and an immaculate structure of lines. This is a very well written poem.