Some Ether

Nick Flynn creates tangible emotions in his auto-biographical poems. Flynn brings the concept of his mother and father to life through the use of his poems. Life and Death, and Flynn's personal relations with these ideas, seems to be the major concept of Some Ether. The poem's are powerful because of their use of imagery. While the objects that Flynn describes are not physically tangible, the mental image is clear and powerful. The reader can feel the tension in ongoing relationship with his parents. Although they have both died, Flynn continues to connect with them through his poetry. This tension-filled emotional relationship gives power and meaning to the objects that Flynn describes.


As we discussed in class, Flynn's poems beg the question, "who cares?" Why should I, the reader, care about Flynn's emotions? Is it because I was given the assignment to read the poems and therefore care about how Flynn feels about his mother's suicide. Flynn's expression of emotion has to relate to me for me to care about it. By illustrating the images of his relationship to his mother and father, Flynn connects to the reader and the reader can relate to Flynn's emotions. In the poem, Curse, I was especially moved by the idea of release.



Curse

Let the willows drop their branches, heavy with ice,
let the sound be a whipcrack across the fields.

Let each tree be felled, let them dynamite the stumps.

From now on you will have to keep moving, from now on
you will carry everything you own.

You will sleep beneath a payphone, dream of a room, a field.

Let the field burn clean, let your children beat the flames
with brooms.

You will feign sleep as the conductor passes.

The names of your children will break up in your mind.

Let the stones jam the plough, let the barn fall.

Let the paint leech into the well. (55)



The title of the poem, Curse, is illustrative of Flynn's relationship to his father and his father's release from family and life.
The poem, Prayer, follows up with this idea and Flynn's relationship with his mother.



Prayer

Who are you talking to? she asks, the room empty. (57)


This illustrates the tension between Flynn and his mother, and the ongoing impact of this relationship on Flynn. These emotions are made tangible by Flynn's use of imagery and relationships. This tension can be felt by the reader and this is what gives Flynn's poems power and emotion to me.