Adverse Undertow

Discuss the poem Adverse Undertow with the community...

https://www.poetry.com/poem/183128/adverse-undertow

Newest Oldest Popular

2 Comments

 

Notify me of new comments via email.

Publish

• 

  Vixility

  Wow!! How the hell did this slip under my radar? The existential constraints we find ourselves born into almost seem inescapable! Born under bad signs. Reminds me of something said by Jean Jacques Rousseau: Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.
  
  Let me see if I’m reading you right. We are born into a gender, a language, a culture, a country (the list goes on) which impose upon us their limitations along with their biases (our snipped and bridled condition) and somehow (if we are to live as authentic individuals) we must find a way to break away from the sway of these constraints?
  
  It is as if an individual is born between two polarities where we are split as an essence: complete subjugation (the constant eventuality) and limitless freedom (the mercurial). The latter state seems an impossible dilemma since we already seem to be born into constraints.
  
  However! We can witness a soul’s survival (from the bridle) through miraculous manifestations that are beyond belief; that is to say, despite our condition, we can achieve an authentic existence that rises above the subjugating conditions we find ourselves born into.
  
  Whew! Am I even close? more »

  LikeReply4 days ago
  • 

    JokerGem

    yes! you're right on the money!
    
    Our lives are propagated by so much adversity at any turn, (the existential constraints) but we are as amorphous as our shadows and constantly inventing ourselves again, constantly evolving - breaking free by solely continuing to live and endure. The 'born under bad signs' came from blues great Albert King and thought it worked well within this context. As much as we are bridled and inhibited, taking a picture of ourselves in multiple points in our existences, it will always look different as there will be something we've surpassed and something brand new we are in the process of withstanding. So, the mercurial is our constant changing as well as that point in the spectrum we're pulling against or toward. You landed on a fascinating interpretation of the 'splitting of an essence' which works wonderfully too, but I was trying to further depict those obstacles bearing down on ourselves that 'break' our resolve unless we do the work to escape life's inherent bridles and preserve our true natures.
    
    It was very satisfying that the pattern that must be adhered to in the pantoum naturally brought these concepts to an interesting conclusion that jibed with my intentions for writing it, i.e. the final stanza.
    
    I don't know too many people who have the prowess to deduce what this was really about, and I'm pleased you were perceptive enough to digest the actual aim of it. --Thank you for the vote and your excellent analysis (as usual)! more »

    LikeReply4 days ago
• 

  alanswansea18

  Nice.

  LikeReply1 month ago