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Hoot
The Core of the Navel Crux
During the Open Mic portion of the March, 2006 Hoot, Maggie Kemp
read an unusual and powerful
poem, which she said was inspired by Wallace Stevens' poem "The Emperor of
Ice-Cream":
The Core of the Navel Crux
after Wallace Stevens
Rough bumps of flesh roll down in curves;
peel off the rind, aroma fresh
seeps into nasal pores so deep,
the Fibonacci number parts
symmetric flower petal chic.
Cut off the nub, the sections fall
in clutter lounge the folded tucks.
Your only core is the core of the navel crux.
Smooth skin spreads out on O.R. slab,
legs draped, head cloaked in blue, veiled eyes.
She cannot view the surgeon hack
who mutilates her focal point.
Concentric energy wave-arcs flowed,
now chaos breaks from out the scar.
No central heart, no ring to pluck,
Your only core was the core of the navel crux.
- Maggie Kemp
Like Stevens' difficult poem (which is readily available online),
several interpretations of Maggie's poem
are possible, and some parts may be a mystery to you, as they are to me. Here are a few of
my thoughts
and associations: A surface reading of the first stanza is that of an orange being peeled
-- perhaps a
"navel" orange, which is seedless, but has a small pit at "the navel
crux" where the fruit encloses a tiny
secondary fruit.
For us of course, the navel marks the point of attachment of the umbilical cord, which
joined us to our
mother. In the second stanza we are in an operating room, where the female patient is
awake but
"cannot view the surgeon hack/ who mutilates her focal point." Has he "cut
off the nub" and removed the
beginning of a new life? Is this the "only core," the only "ring to
pluck?"
There are also interesting numerical aspects to the poem, hinted at
by the mention of Fibonacci
numbers (see Wikipedia) in the first stanza. Each line, except for the final line of a
stanza, has eight
syllables and each stanza has eight lines. This inner rhythm and the rhyming couplets at
the end of
stanzas help convey the poem's great force.
-
Harvey Shepard
(hshepard@gmail.com)
"The Core of the Navel Crux" copyright 2006 by
Maggie Kemp. Maggie lives with her husband, two teenage children,
and dog on a pond in Lempster, New Hampshire. Studying loon families and other
wildlife, kayaking, spending time
with her family, and writing fill her life.
Note: Poems from The Poetry Hoot should not
exceed nineteen lines.
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