Engines come in all types. As oil is the universal lubricant necessary for most engines to work smoothly, toughness is the quality making it possible for all manners of simplicity or difficulty to transpire. From this perspective, the grandson who looks upon his newly found thrasher friends with approbation is himself seemingly looked upon with approval as going in the right "mentors" to learn this essential trait for life that he otherwise might not find exposure to in his environment. The scowl and profane expression of the young thrasher with a defensive attitude that he is going to need so badly to quell threats to his own hegemony in his environment is seemingly viewed with sympathy, understanding and condolence.
Butch and the red cardinal have authentic chutzpah (if not essential “other” wherewithal and where the thrasher’s exhibit is yet for show, not real) to intimidate any would-be challengers into submission even before they’d contemplate threaten. And tough Tink has gone through life with no one in the town ever thinking him capable of tears (on one level laudable) yet he has understandable breakdown and weeps uncontrollably and inconsolably on the poet’s shoulder (a testimony to his own humanity) when his boy prematurely dies of an aneurism.
In this way, all three poems would seem to share a common respect for the toughness shown to survive in their respective environments even when the “intellectual” element (the poems point out) may otherwise be lacking. Toughness is the universal oil needed to navigate the difficulties and hardships of life and its approbation seems to be a common theme seen in all three poems.
A point I’d make is that though the poet is himself many times over, and to the highest degree, a man of letters, he has yet the humanness and compassion to (the cardinal poem omitted here for understandable reasons of exclusion) to be non-judgemental about the life style and chosen decisions made by the non-literary among his neighbors and those who are or would be laborers found amongst them through sweat eking out a living; and accepts them on equal footing as human beings standing on the same ground as he and his family. I think this acceptance of others is among the chosen about as rare as Goldilocks’ coins.
A common thread running through the three poems?
Would the following analogy work?
Engines come in all types. As oil is the universal lubricant necessary for most engines to work smoothly, toughness is the quality making it possible for all manners of simplicity or difficulty to transpire. From this perspective, the grandson who looks upon his newly found thrasher friends with approbation is himself seemingly looked upon with approval as going in the right "mentors" to learn this essential trait for life that he otherwise might not find exposure to in his environment. The scowl and profane expression of the young thrasher with a defensive attitude that he is going to need so badly to quell threats to his own hegemony in his environment is seemingly viewed with sympathy, understanding and condolence.
Butch and the red cardinal have authentic chutzpah (if not essential “other” wherewithal and where the thrasher’s exhibit is yet for show, not real) to intimidate any would-be challengers into submission even before they’d contemplate threaten. And tough Tink has gone through life with no one in the town ever thinking him capable of tears (on one level laudable) yet he has understandable breakdown and weeps uncontrollably and inconsolably on the poet’s shoulder (a testimony to his own humanity) when his boy prematurely dies of an aneurism.
In this way, all three poems would seem to share a common respect for the toughness shown to survive in their respective environments even when the “intellectual” element (the poems point out) may otherwise be lacking. Toughness is the universal oil needed to navigate the difficulties and hardships of life and its approbation seems to be a common theme seen in all three poems.
A point I’d make is that though the poet is himself many times over, and to the highest degree, a man of letters, he has yet the humanness and compassion to (the cardinal poem omitted here for understandable reasons of exclusion) to be non-judgemental about the life style and chosen decisions made by the non-literary among his neighbors and those who are or would be laborers found amongst them through sweat eking out a living; and accepts them on equal footing as human beings standing on the same ground as he and his family. I think this acceptance of others is among the chosen about as rare as Goldilocks’ coins.
Thank you, Marc. I learned a measure of what you praise (and thanks for that too) from a great man: your dad, Father Paul Washington.
Thanks for the three poems--compact, powerful storytelling. Always wide awake to life.
I'll send you one now.
Thanks, Tom, on all counts!