oregonnerd: differing views

perception and preception

January 2, 2018 at 7:12 pm Leave a comment

perception

caught in a sudden moment
suspended
like some feather’s
paused flight, or an amber-
trapped fly
for one moment, passionless, you merely

perceive her and yourself. in some ways
you know the woman well: the pouting
curve of lip when she concentrates
on a book, or perhaps one of your
poems, or rambling letters: that breathy high
chuckle, which still strikes
your heart’s strings…as if she were

some sounding strum on soul’s lute,
or were desire’s summing…

have thought, i say, to know her
(and yet guessed
that lurking stranger, hidden
‘neath the skin)
and been astounded by a revelation
of the image’s illusiveness, Maya slyly for one
moment removing

the mask, the lent facade…

but then knowing your folly
you recoil from the knowledge,
and hide it away again, returning
to that dear stranger, your lover.

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I haven’t modified this, although the main presumptions are both banal and egocentric.  The writer ‘perceives [his] self’, with the presumption that it’s rarely true especially but for the writer it’s simply evident that he can examine his self dispassionately while busily engaged in proving the reverse–unless the abstraction per se lends truth.

In retrospect this is written by someone totally self-absorbed, to the extent that his feelings are (literally) absolutely correct.  There’s no trace of even an attempt to understand what she feels or thinks; the thoughts and even the passion he feels is generated by her, and not his perception of her.

Entry filed under: Ancient Poetry, poetry, voices. Tags: perception and preception, poetry from voices.