Retallack #2: "None Too Soon"

I knew this work would be placed at the top of the tentpole when discussing about Joan Retallack's unique oeuvre. I am glad I had read it and put it on my radar before this particular assignment. I say that because it has made me happy to imbibe the non-traditional manner of reading.

The opening lines produce an enigma,a quiet melody,an euphony even when the language is seemingly stark. "Located in memories without precedent" is an expert line that attests to the clean slate in which original ideas receive their first break, where "fine stock of syllables not yet squandered in pliant affirmation" is an expression for all the writers, creators and iconoclasts who wish to make a mark without repeating the models left to them by prior voices or established models. The "fine stock of syllables" can be interpreted as a wonderful metaphor for the unblemished, innocent charm of new writers who chime in as a collective, an unit.

Then there's an affirmation to not fear judgement as the sundry, myriad of critical voices are only a handful, it's just that their self-proclaimed pompousness can be overhearing for the inexperienced. Yielding to criticism and its chorus is not to be committed to. They can be anonymous mostly and yet vitiate the bloom of creativity with their aura.

One of the most important verses here is, "Yearning minds conjure thoughts/ bound to deform the musculature of the most determined smile"; to me, it's not very complex but flows with reality of a practical bent. Of course, there are physical markers of convention and gatekeeping, the musculature of proper etiquettes and patronage that almost always fail to determine a healthy start for the most promising minds. Enquiry and a lack of capitulation to the established status quo has to be the core principle governing those wishing to usher in a new wave of thought, art or life-force in general.

The final line is absolutely wholesome, in my opinion. Ms. Retallack suggests that the only pure, true manner of living is to never give up dreaming of better opportunities and self-motivating ourselves to break the mould, shunt out old-school values and prevail. We have to make sure that it's something we abide by and not just hold off for sooner or later dilemmas. Now is the time to create a space without worrying about the vanguards of legitimacy.

The most comprehensible and significant line in this one is the one about 'yearning minds' And these are set up as opposed to the determination of the fixed smiles. She has this wonderful capacity to present binaries in a very fresh way. I loved her setting up of the tortoise and the hare and it reveals so much of western civilization. Here, I see the yearning minds as those belonging to artists, poets, and anyone who engages with the world with imagination and intuition. ( In her book on poethics she in fact refers to 'play' as in what children indulge in as something that is similar to the artist's and the explorer/scientist's way of engaging with reality.) And that tight 'determined smile' brings up the way mass media/popular culture has created artificial values. I am still grappling with that last line about 'dreaming' humans dream, maybe animals but vegetables and minerals - do they dream?

Is the "worthwhile thought experiment" the poem itself? So much depends on the bracket. Is it enclosing or excising or both?

As for what kind of 'thought experiment is the speaker proposing, I think this is about the act of writing and reading and discussion of text. In particular, I find 'don't be scared' and 'none too soon' to be of the invitational manner to the writer. And the yearning minds that make up their interpretations of what is presented to them is gloriously, and of course necessarily, open and conjuring (and therefore unique but also spelled and available to all to enjoy, too), and that can dash the muscle of the creator, the piece's progenitor, but that is necessary, but to save the day, the speaker lets us all step into brackets (or step around them...I'm not sure) and just do what we do: engage and keep dreaming.

The form--prose, prose poem, prose-esque--is a blocky state and works well because it seems to be a philosophical and even a little bit of a how-to manual for the reader and writer alike, so give it all in one chunk. Line breaks would have leaned the message a little toward the writer side. Line breaks are the poet's work, not the reader's. So by using non-line breaks, or at least appearing to straight prose, the Retallack is even-ing out the playing field. Democratic brackets and all that, and yes, that's poetic!

Philosophical prose like this is certainly poetic, in the sense of distillation of complex ideas into succinct images. There’s so much contained in “Hard to forget what’s never been known for sure,” for example. I think the poem can engage the reader in a way that the essay doesn’t. The essay makes a case, whereas the poem invites the reader to explore the situation. In this poem, Retallack invites us to conduct a thought experiment (she doesn’t demand it or say it’s the only or right way—she just says it’s the only worthwhile one she currently knows about). And that invitation is consistent with her claim elsewhere (writing about essays) that experiments like this bring the writer and reader together. A lot of philosophical prose, on the other hand, aims to draw lines in the sand that separate believers from nonbelievers.

Inquiring minds want to know, and the thoughts produced by yearning to know can generate consternation and erode even the smuggest, most “knowing” smiles of the official knowers.

What might those thoughts look like (the thought experiment asks) if we and everything around us occasionally lapsed into dreaming? I wondered how I might even go about constructing anything logical under illogical conditions (dreaming minerals?). Is this even possible? I’ll never know until I try, I think she says, and few of us have the courage even to try.

Does the title ("None Too Soon") suggest that the need to undertake this experiment (or one like it) is especially timely? Or urge us to do so before it’s too late? Can we ever know for sure? I don’t have good answers to any of these.

[For me, it’s nearly impossible not to read this poem in the context of having recently viewed the PoemTalk on JR’s The Poethical Wager. Here, especially, “Radical unknowability is the only constant.” But we still need to muster the courage “to forge on, to launch our hopes into the unknown—the future—by engaging positively with otherness and unintelligibility.”]

wind smash dances cedars
and
yews, yous
youse there
this their
whimpering
submissive
smile
gender gap

This piece has caused the following tanka to emerge:
None too soon...

o. oo, oo--sh, sh--
ok.  What emerges no one
significant counts.
Think, yearn logical, we all
dream, burst forth fresh syllables

The original follows as a conversation/challenge to the reader/listener.  The writer's double-speak is as in dreams and admonitions, requiring attention and taking apart to put together as in: "hard to forget what's never been known before."  Well, for sure. It's hard to forget something you or implied no one else knew, but then the yearning mind conjures.  Up against the wall of the smile- a Mona Lisa smile, an Edward Hopper enigma face?- those thoughts "deform the musculature," behind the determination to hide or pretend or contain.  

We humans process emotionally in our brain if someone is angry, even though they may smile and we convince ourselves "Oh, so and so isn't really angry...", because the fine muscles around the mouth tighten and also around the eyes.  I believe this scientifically minded author knows this and has found a poetic way to say it.

How she plays with us!  Pliant we become!  Logical experiment devolves into dreaming of the animal, vegetable and mineral-- like the question game I played on long car rides where you ask ist it animal, vegetable or mineral of the holder of the secret and then I guess  and narrow  down with some given clues. I don't know if Ms. Retallack is alluding to this, but to me adding the game aspect of all her other affirmations to add a dimension of play which like a joke can make what is said more significant.