levelheaded: Soon-Soon Monsoon

The title of this week’s poem is at once playful and ominous. Its playfulness derives from the repetition of the word “soon,” stamping the poem with the author’s awareness of how fun and bizarre language can be. At the same time, the idea that a metaphorical storm is on the not-so-distant horizon fills the poem with an overarching sense of doom.

In keeping with the title, the poem’s first line calls attention to language with the phrase “the snow gathers the hillside.” Here, with the omission of the word “on,” snow doesn’t just cover the landscape, it creates it. To think of what this means on a philosophical level is fun, but it’s also kind of scary. Death giving birth to life = death being the monsoon on the horizon.

That whisper of fear and sadness in the opening line is echoed in the idea of lost friends, but quickly undercut in the next two lines by the way those former pals are remembered. Again, playfulness of language (“I say okay long-ago friends / been a while  / since our sandbox days”) balances out the poem’s negative energy.

After reminiscing about lost friends, the speaker happens upon a sudden realization that he or she too will “become forgotten.” It’s an incredibly simple poem, really: speaker sees snow, thinks of lost friends, thinks about own death. Yet, the way that Grogan comes at the fear–via fun–makes it all the more palpable. Grogan’s playfulness infuses the poem with a snow-like levity. Anyone who has shoveled a driveway knows how heavy the stuff can get.

– The Editors