ㅁ -> . . . ) Memoirs of the Architect ? {Post title} When the calico cat on the couch fades in the slanted rays of the wintersun And when the streets outside the window reach not for home but for their origins Gentle, gentle, do my tears come. Without the calculus of my memory to guide those tears Without the nurture of my once heroic imaginings Quiet, quiet, the pain slips heavily. Toward anger . Time the . out Knife . of slips time home. lost, Cannot, for whatever reason, That these viscous drops of blood are mine. And so bloodied a knife in my trembling hand Call me to mind, A japanese garden I once saw in a photograph which I perceived with an ambition to become an architect. A designer of my struggling end. Little pebbles, little pebbles meaning . for . nought Quiet . 11/17/83 JARED There's no eagerness here. Nor will it ever come to pass But in the thick, timid soul of the non-architect. There. It is irremediable. ( . . . ->
– a free-form poem, which I wrote in the Fall of 1983 – in mid-November – the evidence is right in the text, for this one. Back around 2010, I posted this under my “retroblogging” category (at the appropriate date), but I’ve thought to occasionally include these ancient efforts in my “daily poem” category so that they will eventually be included in a book. This poem appears to commemorate the exact moment in my youth when I gave up my childhood dream of becoming an architect. I’m not sure why I gave up that dream – it seems to have been largely a function of lack-of-self-confidence and laziness.
I think this is a strong poem! But I question the last line of your commentary. I remember you saying at the time that you decided not to become an architect because there was too much non-artistic drafting involved, and that you expected the career (or at least the first steps of it) would end up being rather tedious. I expect you were right. I think teaching has been a better career for you–frustrating and exhausting, yes, but not tedious.