Next in Time (edit of To Salinger's Seymour)

[brynmawr1]

Hi Tim,

I like your poem as the imagery is there so emotionally it works for me.  I have to admit I don't get the deeper meaning.  I am not familiar with the Seymour character (I did look it up) so that probably doesn't help.  I am familiar with Pheobe as an oracle at Delphi.  I get lost with the twitching tail, cat prophecy reference.  And if I'm being nudgy, the way it reads sound like it's the tail that is doing the pouncing.
Thanks,
steve

Yep, you are right about that "twitching tail".  A phoebe is a tiny bird, prevalent around our patio (where there are several nests of them each year) also known as the Tyrant Fly Catcher.  And the Seymour reference is especially lost when I cut those first lines, but would be obscure even with them.  The character is, among other things, a writer of hundreds of never to be published haiku, a child genius, a follower of the Vedanta, and ultimately, a suicide.

I need to write a longer poem about him.  This was written after being immersed in Salinger's writings for about two weeks, in a moment of exaltation on completing my reading.

Thanks for nudging!
Tim

I did my research so I get it now.  A cute little bird with a fierce name armed with the harbinger of my future!  That's a lot to pack into four lines. For what it's worth, I find the balance between saying too much and being too obscure exhausting.   I look forward to the Salinger poem.  In the mean time, I will add him to my reading list.
keep writing,
steve