Claire Askew’s poem ‘Domonic ‘

 Claire Askew’s poem ‘Domonic ‘

The poem won second prize in the International poetry competition of ‘Oxford Brookes University’ for the year 2015. (The poem is second in the poems displayed in the link.) I request readers to read the poem from the link above first and then my review. Thanks.

Domonic is not an English word but a name from the mythology . The title is just a male name and nothing more to it. The poet reminisces the earlier springs during this spring. As we complete reading the poem we find this poem is from the female partner after a breakup. How do people face break up? With great pain and difficulty and a broken heart. There need not be any exemption for anyone, nor be any attempt to make the impact of the break up shorter, or bring up something into the life so big or new that it can eclipse the memories of the former partner. Then how to face a break up? How to survive one? How to move on? How to lead a life alone? How to forget the partner? How to forget the times with him? All these questions are answered in the last two stanzas:

Like: what I'd choose to do with you right now

is go to the bar in the big white afternoon,

no one else drinking, the window seat a giftbox

of jewelled light. Laburnum light: amber

in the tall glasses lit up like bulbs. And after,

I could walk away, every break and closure glowing.

The strength of the poem is it makes the reader move from a subjective view to an objective view. The other side of a relationship is separation and breakup. Acceptance of this is like accepting any other turn in one’s life. The poem doesn’t sell any role model for anyone in distress, nor gives any counselling. The treasures of life have all varieties of gems like the expected, unexpected, cherished and scary. We are scared of some experiences or situations because our minds have been conditioned or tuned to fear them. In short the poem subtly bats for the Zen way of looking at things, that is, any experience is given a shape or taste by the subject depending on his/her mind set. In reality all experiences are same whether we accept or refuse to see the truth. The poem gives a complex content in a simple beautiful monologue.