SESSION 28 — Poems & Rabbit Holes
Discussion:
A poem can carry us to the most unexpected of places. You start with an image or thought and before you know it, the poet has guided you into new territory.
This is accomplished through leaps of association or dream logic, where the connections between images and ideas resist reason and rational mapping. And because they do, they help us envision the world in fresh and invigorating ways.
What leaps of association does Maggie Smith make in this poem? What rabbit hole does she carry the reader down? Where do we start and where do we end up?
Maggie Smith is an award-winning New York Times bestselling author of poetry and prose. Her books include Goldenrod (Simon & Schuster, 2021), Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change (Simon & Schuster, 2020), and Good Bones (Tupelo Press, 2017) among others.
A Suit or a Suitcase
by Maggie Smith
You ask what I’ll miss about this life.
Everything but cruelty, I think.
But you want one specific thing,
so here—I’ll miss my body. I’ll miss
its companionship, how it’s traveled with me,
never leaving me—& by me,
I mean my mind. My soul? My self?
I don’t know what to call it, and besides,
my body hasn’t traveled with me.
I’ve traveled inside it. Do I wear it
or does it carry me? Is the body a suit
or a suitcase? Bear with me here.
I’ve always thought of who I am
as being concentrated in my head & chest,
as if there’s a waterline at my ribcage
& contrary to their density, thoughts
& feelings stay afloat. You asked
what I’ll miss about this life, and now
I’m way down a rabbit hole, wondering
if I could breathe deeply enough
to redistribute my mind more evenly
throughout my body—or soul rather
than mind? Or self? I don’t even know
what to call the me of me. I imagine
filling my body completely, filling it,
every inch, to the skin. Shh. Listen.
Ideas are whispering in my wrists
and all along the slopes of my calves.
When you lay your head on my thigh,
when you kiss the backs of my knees, listen.
I’m trying to tell you what I’ll miss—
everything but cruelty, but mostly this.
Writing Prompt:
Let’s go down a rabbit hole.
Start with an image, a feeling, a conversation.
But instead of following the rational thread, listen for the echo, the “what-if”, the thing that only makes sense in your dreams.
That’s the rabbit hole. Follow it to the end. Let’s see where you pop back up.