Date of Award

Spring 1985

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

Program/Concentration

English

Committee Director

Bruce Weigl

Committee Member

Michael C. Andrews

Call Number for Print

Special Collections; LD4331.E64P58

Abstract

The Ring of Single Solutions is a cycle of poems divided into three parts. Central to each section is the motif of travel and the image of the circle. The journeys of the personae are physical, intellectual or spiritual and sometimes a combination of all three. These journeys always relate to other experiences which have profoundly affected the way in which the world is viewed, I connect these experiences with the image of the circle. I have tried to imply through the language, settings and organization of the poems relationships between seemingly incongruous events which one is often unaware of. The first poem of the collection, "Journey,” is an effort to make this idea of relationships obvious:

I finger a ledge of shale,

Cut above sprays of juniper and columbine,

Like a widow's walk,

Scratch shells from a seashore mountain raised.

The love poems in the section, ''Cloaking" and "Corner Down" serve to connect the ex­ ternal and intellectual with the internal and emotional journeys. In ''Cloaking," the persona speaks of her need for emotional and physical connection:

I need to push, as you say,

All of me into you,

Mold and sculpt shoulders, arms, breasts

Into one form, one shadow.

These poems and others of the section such as 'Two Step Johnny" and ''Reflections from the Capitol On 7th S.E.” connect the external view with the personal relevance of the situation for the persona. They reinforce the idea of search and the impact of environment and coincidence.

The section concludes with "In the Force of Circumstance" in which the persona tries to reconcile her belief in free will with the knowledge that circumstance often subverts and precludes her control.

When I was forced through the rim of my rim body

Did I forfeit control through passage?

Did I forfeit control through passage?

The short, second section is concerned with the family. These poems attempt to bring to light struggles which exist and persist in families. In ''The Ring of Single Solutions," the persona searches for a personal identity which the family provides the nucleus for. The persona in ''Cycle of Anguish," however, realizes that family ties are breaking and creating a cycle of pain. The section continues the thesis that self-realization is a long process of search and journey. The personae investigate their relationships to family and the way in which those relationships are relevant to their vision of the world.

You continue to hunt in that place

For the solution of family

To bring to light your fraternity of strangers.

''The Ring of Single Solutions"

Because of struggles and the need for answers which arise from family relationships, the personae initiate the processes of learning and search.

The final section deals with the "war of wonder" of the personae, Women are

the combatants in this war as they move to find and claim for themselves a distinct place and spirituality apart from the hostil world of men.

Women must remember to forget

What men have told us we are not.

''Resonation"

Other poems like "A Little Danser Known" and ''The Blue Rider" convey the connection of women’s spiritual power with their sexual energies.

I lose my shame, take strides

when anima claws at the inside

Of my night.

''The Blue Rider"

I have tried to reveal, in my poetry, hidden relationships and connections that are a part of the self and society as I see both, I believe that there are never ending relationships and connections which ultimately provide the solution to the way in which everyone lives, This is a life tine journey I have tried to convey in these poems.

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DOI

10.25777/4bxe-ts46

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