Vox Populi
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Doug Anderson: Underneath the sequined day there are tunnels
Underneath the sequined day there are tunnels.
We enter them in sleep, hang our masks
on a hook and our names are erased.
There is no sight here, neither is there
hearing, smell: only touch, and we
navigate the dark with fingertips,
feeling faces, placing the heel of our hand
on a heart. No, not sex, which we
have left topside with our names.
I know this one, we say, she has my sadness.
We cannot speak, are allowed only
the soft knowledge of one another, of our
solitude in the great mass of earthly flesh,
each a Thou, alike in our not-knowing
and our longing to be known.
And in this moment all separateness dissolves.
Copyright 2023 Doug Anderson
Doug Anderson’s books include Undress, She Said (Four Way Books, 2022).
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When we read the first line of the poem, we are confronted with the sound and the voice of the poet, and we are told that “Underneath the sequined day there are tunnels.” Because of the voice and sound and imagery, we know that these are the words of a genuine poet, then we read his name. The poet has written down his poem and with it he has left his meaningful message. However, perhaps unknowingly he has left behind his fragrance, which is the result of his long-life journey of discovery, into a deeper knowledge of himself and others.
In the second line the poet gently directs us in submerging ourselves into the state of dreams. He says, ” there are tunnels, we enter them in sleep.”
The subject of walking about in our dream is very significant. The state of dreams in the human mind has a very specific function, it reveals stored memories, which also reveal important experiences in our lives. The revelations in our dreams may influence our opinions and decisions, which we make in our waking hours. A dream can show us our true opinion and feelings about past events and people in our lives. It is said that we ourselves write our dreams, and so we alone can analyze what they mean; even though people have received guidance from a therapist when interpreting their dreams.
One can say that our lives are split everyday between waking hours, and our sleeping hours. Some say that people dream every night even though they may not remember their dreams. Others say that if it were not for our dreaming where the brain attempts to analyze and synthesize our desires and allows us to confront our hostilities, etc.; that if we never dreamt, we would turn a little nutty. Actually, one can say that our brains and our mind are never not working. Sleep in the brain turns into a particular function, which is different than from waking hours. Neither the brain nor the human body turn themselves off during sleep. Sleep time, and wake time, are always working 24/7, and both parts complement each other; and one sharpens the other.
The poet also says in line two, that before entering the dream, we hang up our mask, or in other words we hang up the self we show the world in our waking hours. This can mean that because of the careful calculations and wisdom we must apply during our waking hours, in order to avoid conflicts, protect our survival and ensure our success, we then practice the repression of our true emotions and true thoughts, in the many situations during the waking hours. It is because of our experiences during our waking hours, whether they be physical, demonstrative or reserved, that we automatically store them in our deep and voluminous memory files. (For me, I must say that in particular, my memories are stored in color, with sight, hearing, taste and smells, which I have been told is unusual)
When we face our dreams and analyze them, we get to know ourselves more.
The poet tells us that in order to enter the dream, we must suspend all the functions of our five senses. To me what this means is that if we are going to meet people in our dream, we will not get to know them mostly by their physical traits, as we usually do when we are awake. We will instead get to know them by touching with our fingertips, and by placing our hand on their hearts. This denotes getting to know them beyond their physical selves. We will get to know them by perhaps sensing their spirit, or their emotions or their feelings. The poet explains that this is getting to know the soft knowledge of one another. This is right, since in the animal world a human is distinguished not so much by their physical appearance, but by their brain. Getting to know the brain or mind of another, is getting to know a greater percentage, dimension or dimensions of a person.
The poet finally imparts to us, his reader, the revelation he has received in his dream. What he has learned, we can also learn, and the knowledge he has received can be very constructive for our lives.
The parts of being human which the poet gets to meet in his dream and becomes more acquainted with, is the most important part of any human being. In contrast the part that humans mostly get to know about others and themselves during waking hours is the part which we take in with our senses, and it is mostly quick and incomplete knowledge of a person. In our American culture, what we take in from people is physical data about the persons appearance, several words and expressions; and the automatic data of who a person is which is gathered by our five senses quickly stops. Which shows that most of us have possibly gotten to know, most people, very superficially; even people we are close to and relate to more intimately.
The poet insinuates that by hanging up our mask and our name before we fully enter our dream, we drop the knowledge we use in our waking hours, of a person’s social class, their professions, their name, their ethnicity, perhaps their gender.
The poet continues, we ” are allowed only.
the soft knowledge of one another, of our
solitude in the great mass of earthly flesh,”
Without using our social labels of our waking hours, we meet each other in our dream as more equals in our humanity. We then notice more sameness between ourselves., In so doing the poet very eloquently says, that each individual in the dream is raised to the dignity of a Thou.
“in the great mass of earthly flesh,
each a Thou, alike in our not-knowing and in our longing to be known.”
In the dream the poet perceives us as being all equal. By not knowing the knowledge of the social labels of others, it is in this condition where a person can really be known by another and be known by another. The poet discovers that by suspending all social labels, and physical traits, the separateness between one another, ethnicity class, age gender, which we have been taught to use in our waking hours disappears.
The dream has made the poet and the reader conscious, of when meeting a person, in our waking hours, the importance of practicing to look beyond appearances, and social labels of an individual. What has been revealed in the dream is that one must remain open minded in getting to know, that larger part of the person, which was revealed in the dream, which perhaps was not known at all by the dreamer before the dream. Also, to get to know others in this new larger/greater way, in the same way we desire for others to get to know us.
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Oh my, Luz. You’ve written a brilliant explication of Doug’s poem. Thank you!
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Can’t wait for Doug’s next collection. He is one of a kind.
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He really is unique, isn’t he?
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I love the tenderness here and the idea of unity. This poem joins several favorites from Doug Anderson.
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I agree, Deborah. I love this poem!
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“our
solitude in the great mass of earthly flesh,
each a Thou, alike in our not-knowing
and our longing to be known.” And isn’t it true that writing poetry is our poor way to try to explain this ‘longing to be known”? Thank you for that poem!
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Yes, isn’t it true, and isn’t it beautiful?
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So deep and beautiful!
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Yes, it is!
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A different poem. very beautiful.
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Thank you Farideh. The poem is very beautiful.
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Stunning poem. I believe where we arrive.
Thank you so much
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Yes, I love Doug’s poems. Thanks, as always, for sharing, Sean.
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