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Poetry v Philosophy, Round 2

January 7, 2012 by Seth Paskin 4 Comments

Charles Simic from the Santa Barbara Independent

Still listening to Essential American Poets put out by The Poetry Foundation.  I just listened to the latest episode on Charles Simic.  He ends the episode by reciting his "The Friends of Heraclitus".  It is about the loss of beloved friend and companion with whom the referenced subject has had many philosophical discourses, walking around and getting lost, both literally and in thought.

The loss of a partner in dialogue made me think of Plato (and Xenophon), what a true sense of sorrow he must have in losing such a companion in Socrates. The Apology, the starting point for our Partially Examined journey, is itself a poem, an ode to a lost friend.

Simic's character goes out for a walk playing both roles, himself and the lost companion.  His sorrow, however, blurs his philosophical sensibilities

The world we see in our heads
And the world we see daily,
So difficult to tell apart
When grief and sorrow bow us over.
Plato's contempt - emotion overcoming reason - can be here easily forgiven.  In fact it is a strong argument against that view:  Reason has no place in Grief.  In the face of death, the Emotive rightfully takes first place.
The last section of the poem is a wonderful allusion to Thales, using Heraclitus.
What was that fragment of Heraclitus
You were trying to remember
As you stepped on the butcher’s cat?
Meantime, you yourself were lost
Between someone’s new black shoe
Left on the sidewalk
And the sudden terror and exhilaration
At the sight of a girl
Dressed up for a night of dancing
Speeding by on roller skates.
Thales, walking at night and gazing upward at the stars, falls into a hole.  Seeing this, a Thracian slave girl laughs.  Simic's lost philosopher too steps on something unintended while his attention is elsewhere, contemplative instead of attentive, and is passed by a girl.  Is philosophy (Reason) a substitute for intimacy (Emotive)?  The suggestion is 'no'.  The girl elicits terror and exhilaration in our philosopher king and the Emotive defeats Reason again.
--seth
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Filed Under: Misc. Philosophical Musings, Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts Tagged With: charles simic, freinds of heraclitus, philosophy blog, philosophy podcast

Comments

  1. JKE says

    January 8, 2012 at 12:04 am

    Nice catch with the allusion to Thales, I didn’t notice it at first! Also, I might speculate that this poem in part alludes to a piece by the Greek poet Callimachus, which goes:

    They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
    They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
    I wept as I remember’d how often you and I
    Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
    And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
    A handful of grey ashes, long, long ago at rest,
    Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
    For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

    Reply
    • Seth Paskin says

      January 8, 2012 at 8:30 pm

      Thanks JKE! No doubt this is in the background.

      Reply
      • JKE says

        January 9, 2012 at 2:43 am

        No doubt there’s a lot going on in the background. Substantially much of this poem seems to allude to the digression in the Theaetetus, and much of the dialogue leading up to that section dealt with Heraclitus’ ideas on change and perception. Now, I’m not really sure how much to read in to this, but I do wonder what the author is getting at with this set of allusions.

        Reply
  2. Noah Dunn says

    January 12, 2012 at 2:51 am

    I can’t believe Charles Bukowski isn’t included among “America’s Essential Poets.”

    Tell me this isn’t genius:

    Reply

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