Bill Holm
***************
Holm, Bill // Festering Boredom Stephanie
Festering Boredom
I tried to find research on the poet, Bill Holm, on the internet but there wasn't any that appeared in my rather feeble attempt. However, I still would like to discuss his poem, "Advice" for what it offered without any biographical information.
I thought that "Advice" offered a new insight into what could be considered a cliche idea. I took "Advice" to be Holm suggesting that we all have a built-in clock, a regular routine that is somewhat conditioned and we all have the option to conform. This is the "Someone dancing inside us / [who] learned only a few steps: / the 'Do-Your-Work' in 4/4 time, / the 'What-Do-You-Expect' waltz" (Holm, "Advice," Rag and Bone Shop, 30). I know I have this programmed little voice inside of me that turns on when homework is daunting around the corner that coerces me to do my work in a rather systematic way. And there is also the little voice that is always around the corner to take on the role of your parents and ask What did you expect if you take a failed chance.
Yet Holm urges us beyond these to an unmapped area where the topography is irregular and its nomads wander in uncertain patterns. I really like the way he turns it into a game of seduction and you can almost see the situation at some swank bar, the mysterious woman in the corner: He hasn't noticed yet the woman
standing away from the lamp,
the one with the black eyes
who knows the rhumba,
and strange steps in jumpy rhythms
from the mountains in Bulgaria. (Holm, "Advice," Rad and Bone Shop, 30).
Ooh! This perks my interest and makes me want to urge the man away from his metronome life into the arms of the exotic, foreign woman. This way the "next world/ will [not] be a lot like this one" (Holm, "Advice," Rag and Bone Shop, 30) because the people in it are actually changing! I loved the driving momentum and creative way Holm destroys boredom!
***************
Holm // there is a free spirit within each of us Joanna
I really liked the poem Advice, by Bill Holm. (Rag and Bone, p.30)
It reminds me that we cannot always do just what society wants us to do, and the
importance of discovering the wild, free spirit within each of us. Someone
dancing inside us / learned only a few steps: We are limited by the roles
society expects us to play. Society says we should be responsible and studious and
learn our lessons well so that we may go out into the world of work and get a respectable,
well-paying job to go to every day for the rest of our lives. The “Do-Your-Work”
in 4/4 time, / the “What-Do-You-Expect” waltz. But this is not
necessarily the right path for everyone. It is simply the easiest path to find.
He hasn’t noticed yet the woman / standing away from the lamp, She is a
true free spirit; she is not in the limelight or in mainstream culture- she is not in the
lamplight. Instead, she remains in the shadows, mysterious and elusive. The
one with black eyes / who knows the rhumba, Yes, this woman is truly something
different. She has knowledge of art- of something besides the dull daily occurrences
in the lives of those who think they are getting “ahead” in the world. She
has experienced life, and knows more than just a few steps. And strange steps in
jumpy rhythms / from the mountains in Bulgaria. This woman, this spirit, has not only
the wisdom from her own culture, but has traveled to distant lands to learn what she can
from the people there and their ideas. We cannot just fall into society like pieces
into a jigsaw puzzle, we must challenge ideas and explore alternatives to discover who we
really are and become truly alive. If they dance together, / something unexpected
will happen, When the unquestioning man meets the freethinking woman, his life will
never be the same. She will challenge him through her very existence to think for
himself and challenge the roles and ideals placed upon him by society. If they
don’t, the next world / will be a lot like this one. If the freethinkers do
not challenge those who are in control in our society, then nothing will ever change.
Wildness and freedom of spirit are essential to the development and improvement of
our society.
I’m not really sure what I think about the gender issues implied by this poem.
Why is it that the boring person who has “learned only a few steps” is a
man, and the free spirit is a woman “with black eyes”? Personally, I feel
that the roles in this poem could easily be switched, and would change the images of the
poems, but not the meaning. I think that if wildness is different for women and men
it is only because of the different roles society tells each to play. Because we
have different roles to break out of, our wildness may be different at first. But I
believe that in the long run, women and men have more in common than different.
Growing as wild women (or men) involves breaking out of cages,
boxes, stereotypes, categories, and captivity. It involves standing tall, laughing
loudly, and being who we really are.
(SARK, Succulent Wild Woman, p.
176)
***************
Holm // there is a free spirit within each of us Sersch
Joanna, I agree with your analysis of the poem, especially your powerful reading that "If the freethinkers do not challenge those who are in control in our society, then nothing will ever change. Wildness and freedom of spirit are essential to the development and improvement of our society." But, I think we need to look at the gender question a little deeper here. You are right in that the "boring person" who is the subject can be either male or female . . . outside of the poem, the charachter would have diffrent expereinces depending on gender, but within the context of this poem that seems irrelevant. But what is it that liberates the subject in this poem? A woman. If the "He" changed into "she" is a woman, the subject changes dramatically.
It seems ironic, but I find this narrative to go opposite women's liberation. Why? What saves the man is the Other-ness of the woman: "the one with black eyes/ who knows the rhumba/ . . . from the mountains in Bulgaria." The woman in the poem can liberate because she is exotic, it really has nothing to do with who she really is. She is just the sum of her parts, and her parts are diffrent from his mundane world.
Now, does this mean that the poem is untrue? No, in fact, I love it. But it does opperate under a old device of romanticizing the diffrent (Rousseau's noble savage) so we can project our desires onto them, then claim they liberate us. This does a disservice to ourselves and the Bulgarian roots of the exotic woman because we really never listen to what she does have to give us, we just listen to our internal monologue of what we think she can give us.
***************
Holm and Clifton//The source of strangeness Adam
To reply to Stephanie and Sersch.
First to Sersch - Let’s note some lines of "Advice" and Clifton’s poem:
. "He hasn’t noticed yet the woman" from Holm and "There is a girl inside" from Clifton–
I think the key to interpreting these poems is in this "already there quality" of the inner woman. Sersch seemed frustrated that Holm only portrays women as saviors of men because they are exotic/other. But I think Holm is saying they are another part of us, as men, that we just have not taken into account. In this way, the woman is very much familiar because she has been inside all along, the strangeness comes not from encountering a foreign entity, but from remembering, or revisiting a part of the self. Note – Clifton writes, "There IS a girl inside", we don’t need to invent her. I think Holm believes there is a girl inside of men too, they just don’t listen to her, they don’t "notice" her in all the loudness of their manworld.
I enjoyed Stephanie’s comment that the source of strangeness in the Clifton poem is in the contrast of religious imagery and the sexual/wild energy of the poem. But what stands out to me is how she reconciles these supposedly opposing forces. She brings us into biological gestation and birth through the image of a nun waiting the resurrection of her god. The harvesting by the lovers only completes the binding of religion and sex/reproduction. She draws such a smooth parallel between these two worlds with the common goal of blossoming – of coming forth, becoming full.
***************
Holm, Bill // Explore new worlds! Jen
Someone dancing inside us
learned only a few steps:
the "Do-Your-Work" in 4/4 time,
the "What-Do-You-Expect" waltz.
These first four lines seem to be expressing the pressures of society as they are felt by the speaker of this poem ( I think the speaker of the poem is male because he later images a man inside of him intrigued by a woman. This could be interpreted differently.). The speaker is functioning in a limiting environment, which has restricted him to what is expected of that individual by the culture and society around him. This is an individual performing a tap dance around his own instincts in order to follow a pre-established plan or path of existence.
He hasn’t noticed yet the woman
standing away from the lamp,
This image opens up possibility for the speaker of the poem. I can picture the speaker of the poem standing before two paths. One flows in his current direction, the direction that everyone else is following that gives into societal pressures and maintains a "normal" existence. The other is one that he hasn’t noticed yet. One that may take him to new places and ideals. One that can expose him to a world completely and utterly different from his own. He hasn’t become exposed to the path (the woman) that lies away from the obvious (the lamp).
the one with black eyes
who knows the rhumba,
and strange steps in jumpy rhythms
from the mountains in Bulgaria.
This portion of the poem opens up the world of opportunity that may or may not be exposed to the speaker if he chooses to search for something outside of his normal boundaries. The woman represents things completely alien to him. A rhumba rather than the basic waltz. "Strange steps" rather than the "4/4 time" of his daily existence. She offers new worlds to be explored. She represents new experiences, but much more than that, she represents a difference from the norm.
If they dance together,
something unexpected will happen.
If they don’t, the next world
will be a lot like this one.
This last portion of the poem promotes the exotic, new, unexpected experience over the hum-drum existence presently being lived by the speaker of the poem. If the speaker dares to allow the man inside him to turn to the new and unusual side of his nature, in the form of the exotic woman, he will be rewarded with the experience of not knowing what tomorrow will bring him. If he chooses to follow the path he is presently on, he will continue into the next world, passing on the same inability to try new things to the people around him, maintaining the norm, rather than testing the waters.
***************