"Organic Bloom" by Stanley Kunitz

Subjects touched on in this episode include: -Mid-century poet syndrome -Rhythmic vs. metrical variation -The poem as caesura salad -The Mind-Body problem, or, putting Descartes before the horse -Chaos and Cosmos -Is Hell artificial or organic? -Guilty sin vs. sinful guilt -More distinctions re: Romanticism -Insatiable desire and spiritual hollowness -A great Shakespeare quote from a just-ok Shakespeare play -Civilization as the macro-ubermensch -A short botanical digression -Finding existential hope in the way fruit works Text of the poem: Organic BloomThe brain constructs its system to encloseThe steady paradox of thought and sense;Momentously its tissued meaning growsTo solve and integrate experience.But life escapes closed reason. We explainOur chaos into cosmos, cell by cell, Only to learn of some insidious painBeyond the limits of our charted hell,A guilt not mentioned in our prayers, a sinConceived against the self. So, vast and vasterThe plasmic circles of gray disciplineSpread outward to include each new disaster. Enormous floats the brain's organic bloomTill, bursting like a fruit, it scatters doom. Thank you so much for listening. Please rate, review, subscribe, or recommend to a friend! Art by David Anthony Klug Support the showVISIT MY WEBSITE HERE.BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok:  @versecraftSend me a note at: [email protected] favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry AssociationArt by David Anthony KlugList of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)