Review of Australian poet Fay Zwicky’s poem ‘Letting go’

 

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55115/letting-go

Review of Australian poet Fay Zwicky’s poem ‘Letting go’

I request readers to read the poem from the above link and then only my review. Thanks.

The poem echoes the feelings of a well informed, modern mother’s hurt when she needs to let her children go, respecting their freedom. As the poem progresses, we find, even though she falls in line with others in acknowledging the freedom of children, she is not fully convinced why she must be away from them and miss them, she can’t express it openly though. Instead the mother can leave a written document (the poem is not specific whether it’s like a will) which will hide in table drawer like a scorpion and sting the children when they read it. In the initial part of the poem she records she doesn’t want to make her kids feel guilty by knowing her real feelings.

One read will do. The poem is a straight one. The strength of the poem is it subtly takes the reader from micro to macro. The poem is not exclusively a lament of a mother. It’s about how a previous generation comes to terms with the changes in the institution of family. The institution has to learn to be elastic and not choke all the members always.  The ‘letting go’ is smoother, friendlier and reflects empathy. Even if you don’t let go the modern age children are raring to go.

The other subtle thread in the poem is the poet believes true love is never imposing or dominating or bulldozing. We infer it from the expression ‘you can’t say what you feel

because they might read

this poem and feel guilty’

 

Instead true love is cautious not to play with the emotions of the loved ones.  The emotional expressions and pressurizing the loved ones are tell tale signs that love’s possessive side eclipses out the empathizing and inclusive part of bonding.

 

In the last stanza she satirically but pragmatically cautions the older gen to welcome change with a progressive mind, because if you don’t it’s going to reduce you into nothing. It’s going to make you irrelevant.