For me, writing is both micro and macro. I believe the
process of writing is to condense and intensify universal truths and ideas into
a form which is more potent to the reader. Poetry is concise, and yet
encompasses far more in such few words than other types of text. One of my
favourite poets is Sylvia Plath.These first lines from her poem Morning
Song encompass the beginnings of life to me beautifully and evocatively, and
bring forth a rush of emotions from my experiences of new motherhood.
Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald
cry
Took its place among the elements.
In
these three lines the author has spoke the micro, the commonplace occurrence of
a new child being born in a minimum of words and yet it is also the macro. It
speaks to mothers everywhere, and represents the beginning of the life cycle.
For me, poetry combines the micro and the macro in the most logical way. I hate making life so binary, when it very rarely is in reality.
And I never mentioned Little and Large once so here's a photo for you.
3 comments:
Excellent post.
You hate making life binary? That makes 10 of us :-)
Ash
If Sylvia Plath wrote about slapping babies today she'd be incarcerated for child abuse.
I still don't understand micro (thought it was a car) and macro (which I know I can disable on word.
Lindsay, you captured my thoughts on the relationship between the minuscule and the universal perfectly. Great snippet of poetry too :)
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