I think the meditation on time is cool. Interesting how many Lit Blitz pieces this year cover long periods in the short space allotted: forty years for Jeanna, four generations for Jeanine, and a "scant 10,000 years" here. While this piece doesn't need to be read in a Mormon context, I do think the combination of Utah landscape and discussion of history has a particular meaning for Mormons. I get kind of an image of our pioneer history like a nested doll in longer histories of the Paiutes, of the rocks themselves.
Some stories and poems, I think, are instantly accessible to a reader, and some require a bit more effort to sink into them. I think both types have their virtues and both should exist for various reasons.
For me, this one took a couple of reads to grasp more closely, but I came to enjoy it more the more I read. I think the idea that struck me most was that "our faces [are] painted with our inevitable sunset." It felt like such a powerful image and idea--that we contain within us, already, our ends.
I think the meditation on time is cool. Interesting how many Lit Blitz pieces this year cover long periods in the short space allotted: forty years for Jeanna, four generations for Jeanine, and a "scant 10,000 years" here.
ReplyDeleteWhile this piece doesn't need to be read in a Mormon context, I do think the combination of Utah landscape and discussion of history has a particular meaning for Mormons. I get kind of an image of our pioneer history like a nested doll in longer histories of the Paiutes, of the rocks themselves.
Some stories and poems, I think, are instantly accessible to a reader, and some require a bit more effort to sink into them. I think both types have their virtues and both should exist for various reasons.
ReplyDeleteFor me, this one took a couple of reads to grasp more closely, but I came to enjoy it more the more I read. I think the idea that struck me most was that "our faces [are] painted with our inevitable sunset." It felt like such a powerful image and idea--that we contain within us, already, our ends.