Monday, November 28, 2011

"Beginnings" by Lee Stern

In the Sixth Issue of Cantee, the poem titled "Beginnings" by Lee Stern caught my attention. The first and second lines are enjambed and read "I don't have any more beginnings / to give you before the road stops." The juxtaposition of beginnings and the end of the road creates a vivid image in my mind as I picture just what that road the speaker is referring to looks like.
The speaker repeats multiple times in different wording that he or she has run out of beginnings, which to me, means that too many mistakes have been made throughout his or her life, and it is time to reevaluate and stop starting over. It is presumably time for the speaker to get his or her act together and move forward, rather than start over, as he or she has done so many times before.
This idea of new beginnings is very relatable because we've all been in a position where we wish we could simply start over like flipping over a piece of scribbled on computer paper to the stark white side. The poem's author makes us question just how many times we should be attempting to start over and when we should just face our mistakes and move along, head held high.
-Julie

1 comment:

Popped said...

I think the idea of being able to start over is really cool. Of course it is something we all think about from time to time, and I think it is built into our lives a bit. We go away to college where we can re-create ourselves. We make New Years Resolutions, and we pretend that from one day to the next we can just decide to make a fresh start. I know I've done it.
You describe the speaker in the poem as someone who is choosing not to let themselves keep starting over, but what if it is someone who can't. There are some mistakes you can't fix by backing up and trying again.
I think this poem is also interesting to read now, as we approach the end of the semester full of ideas about how next semester we'll get a fresh start in new classes.

-Averill