levelheaded: New Year’s Eve

When one is trying to write only true things, one tries to stay away from interpretation and philosophy. There are certain topics you can always trust: the moon, the rain, those frequent visitors to poems of all times. Vincent Poturica says, “I’m trying to / write only true / things,” and indeed he ends up finding the promise of good sleep in the idea of rain, but more importantly, he tells us what’s going on without breaking down the implications. He lays down his state of mind and his surrounding, and lets us fill in the blanks.

“New Year’s Eve” does not directly discuss New Year’s Eve but the setting is constructed nicely by mentioning family (mother-in-law, cousin), winter (leafless trees), and, well, heaven, perhaps roaming around the speaker’s thoughts since six days earlier.

Similarly, with “My hair / is thinning” the speaker shows without telling how time is passing and age is advancing. He invokes memory and sentiment, by opening with the image of his mother rising from his mother-in-law’s playing the piano. It is holiday season, he seems to say. I am growing old. I remember things. There’s a certain anxiety. I’ll sleep better when it rains.

Pairs of sounds that agree with one another, either in the form of alliteration, or mild rhymes, are hidden in each couplet: cousin/convinced, Nissan/heaven, trying/true, things/thinning, trees/leaves – like droplets of rain. Perhaps in the same manner of words trickling softly with light weight, the lines are short, each consisting of three words, each a syllable or two long.

This style, using forms that are easy to digest, nicely balances the heavier undertone of the poem. The trees losing their red leaves, just like the words uttering the facts without much contemplation, are merely following nature. It’s life. A little sad perhaps, but we observe, we consent–it’s all we can do.

Still, some springtime rain would surely be nice right now.

– The Editors