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The Weed

Dreamed before 1946 by Elizabeth Bishop

I dreamed that dead, and meditating,
I lay upon a grave, or bed,
(at least, some cold and close-built bower).
In the cold heart, its final thought
stood frozen, drawn immense and clear,
stiff and idle as I was there;
and we remained unchanged together
for a year, a minute, an hour.
Suddenly there was a motion,
as startling, there, to every sense
as an explosion. Then it dropped
to insistent, cautious creeping
in the region of the heart,
prodding me from desperate sleep.
I raised my head. A slight young weed
had pushed up through the heart and its
green head was nodding on the breast.
(All this was in the dark.)
It grew an inch like a blade of grass;
next, one leaf shot out of its side
a twisting, waving flag, and then
two leaves moved like a semaphore.
The stem grew thick. The nervous roots
reached to each side; the graceful head
changed its position mysteriously,
since there was neither sun nor moon
to catch its young attention.
The rooted heart began to change
(not beat) and then it split apart
and from it broke a flood of water.
Two rivers glanced off from the sides,
one to the right, one to the left,
two rushing, half-clear streams,
(the ribs made of them two cascades)
which assuredly, smooth as glass,
went off through the fine black grains of earth.
The weed was almost swept away;
It struggled with its leaves,
Lifting them fringed with heavy drops.
A few drops fell upon my face
and in my eyes, so I could see
(or, in that black place, thought I saw)
that each drop contained a light,
a small, illuminated scene;
the weed-deflected stream was made
itself of racing images.
(As if a river should carry all
the scenes that it had once reflected
shut in its waters, and not floating
on momentary surfaces.)
The weed stood in the severed heart.
"What are you doing there?" I asked.
It lifted its head all dripping wet
(with my own thoughts?)
and answered then: "I grow," it said,
"but to divide your heart again."

EDITOR'S NOTES

I find the poem compelling but the dream baffling. "Again"? Was her heart divided before? Up till the plant explains, it made sense to me: a shamanic experience of death, sorting through one's experiences. But I expected the seedling, agent of transformation, to seek integration not splitting. Dividing at death is a common motif, from ancient Egypt's weighing of the heart to Christian judging of heaven- and hell-bound. But such cults usually have an external judge. It's true that some Buddhists think your next life sprouts simply from your own thoughts. Here, such an innate new self has sprouted, only to split the old Elizabeth.

Into what and what? And why?

--Chris Wayan

SOURCE: Elizabeth's Bishop's first poetry collection, North and South, 1946.



LISTS AND LINKS: meditation - dying in dreams - plants - flowers - Jenny Badger Sultan also dreams of plants growing from corpses - transformations - magical springs - water &/or memories - Wayan also dreams of memories/experiences as objects: Who Shatters? - weird dream beings - symbolic dreams (no, not all are!) - transcendent dreams - dream-poems - also by Elizabeth Bishop: Sunday, 4 AM

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