Non-narrative poetry's opportunistic narrative
——Read Li Milling's poetry collection "Far Away"
◎Convex and concave
I am familiar with Li Mill's poetry writing process, poetic pursuits and poetry books. Reading "Far Away", the general feeling is that although each poem still adheres to the existing short-term route, the pattern of three views, the depth of thought, and the level of poetry presented by it have a new reclamation and nourishment compared with the previous works. It is not a collection of narrative poems, and there is not even a single critical genealogy of narrative poems in it. But this non-narrative poetry collection has always been narrated, from beginning to end. The protagonist of the story is "I", the second character is "you" and "she", and again "he" and the name and surname; the events and plots seem to be nothing, looming, not as detailed and complete as novels and essays; or fragmentary chronicles, or improvisational events. In short, the events along the way are continuous, and the narrative is continuous. The author's physical scene, spiritual scene and poetry scene are paired with time, space, characters, events, etc., interacting, reacting and generating.
The author is using the non-narrative charter and speech of the poem, what is the matter? The first part, "Gardenia Blossoms," deals with love, affection, and so on, while the second part, "Poetry and The Distance," deals with the author's travels to the motherland and travels to cities and states outside the region. The narrative of all other aspects is placed in the third part, "Where to Settle.".
The above narrative is more interspersed with love. I noticed that in the poem, the author uses many loves of the same time and space and different time and space to realize the singleness of love. The word "love" in the poem is as many as 73, and the synonym of love, "sunshine", is as many as 37. Moreover, there is no confusion, trouble, or problem in the world that love and sunshine cannot solve. In the Love Section, the author also writes several times about two relatives who live in the clouds: a kind grandmother and a learned father. Many poets are masters of combining Chinese characters and playing with words, with amazing sentences and beautiful poems, but the reader can't see the heartbeat and can't feel the temperature. There is no such problem here in Li Milling, not only is there affection in his poetry, but even poetry grows directly in his affection.
Li Milling, "Far Away"
In addition to the love affairs, the author also likes to intersperse plant affairs, monastic affairs and seasonal affairs.
Tung flowers, trees, xinyi flowers, cornflowers, bodhi trees, elm trees, linden trees and hazelnut trees... They can find their place and face in the soil of his poetry. It is these lush, tenacious plants that provide his poetry with the moisture of gardens, forests and nature, giving his poetry a path and roots that are closely related to the earth. From the fact that he named the first series "Gardenia Blossom", it can be seen how paranoid and inclined he was to chanting on plants.
The author also wrote many times about temples, monasteries, bells, and even churches, which made me see him snow in his poems, snow on silence, cleanliness, Zen, compassion, fraternity, and ultimate care.
Even life and all things are seasonal, how can poetry be separated from the brewing and cellar of the season? The author uses his own way of concluding sentences and breathing methods to do things that open up the joints of history, reality and the future. It is a matter of God to write history for time, but the poet who understands God has the right to write his own history of time in a book of poems.
Reading through "Far Away", we will find that the author always spares no effort to create incidents and opportunities in the text, so that the expression of thought and the expression of poetry meet head-on. The so-called incident is a verbated memory that can be recalled from the author's distant dusty past. The so-called opportunity has three meanings, one refers to the favorable situation with temporal nature, the second refers to the emergence of new choices, and the third refers to the key and crucial points.
Next, let's look at how the author uses non-narrative poetry to create incidents and opportunities to realize his poetry.
First of all, because of the flash of inspiration, the poetry came, and it gave the narrative a chance. It is the invisible opportunity that gives the event a visible light, allowing the narrative to take shape and ascend to the path. If the author thinks of the narrative at the beginning, but does not feel the poem in the narrative for a long time, he will certainly not move the pen, and he will put the pen down when he moves. Even propositional writing, it is the discovery of possible poems, before daring to write, so as to track and capture the poems in the writing process. In a word, it is poetry that gives the narrative a chance, making the narrative of memory a narrative of opportunity.
At the end of the writing, I seem to understand the simple purpose of the title of the book, "Far Away". Li Milling is using poetry to reach the far side of his poetry, and in this action to reach the far side where he explores the world and cares for mankind. However, it is so far away, how to go? "The bells are ringing... My spontaneous combustion is like drilling wood to illuminate the self/trying to illuminate within a meter" ("Within a Meter"). It turned out that he was going with one "within one meter" after another. Obviously, it was a reliable and distant place to go.
Edited by Li Jie