All Comments on 'Sepia'

Clash of Civilizations @ a fog-misted beach ?!!

The imagery is rich and the diction wonderful, Demure. My only quibble is if the poem is about a very old photograph, as the title seems to suggest, some of the verbs have too much motion. While I can imagine the mist occasionally lifting, it was harder to imagine canes twirling (for me at least, perhaps not others).

"....a native couple/stands back behind the cold grey eyes/of white authority" is outstanding, reminding me of the waning days of Imperialism and the way many natives felt they had to "smile" to the colonizers, but I'm not sure I would know that their smile would be fleeting.

Perhaps this is not so much about viewing an old photograph as it is about the poet's reflection on it, particularly because of the way the poem ends: "...and natives stay/there to endure while strangers fade away," that is, a commentary on the post colonial world we live in and its aftermath we read about in the news almost every day. If that's the case, the verb choice works for me but raises another question. Would it be better to have framed the poem as what the poet interpreted from the photograph in the first place? For me that's an interesting notion more than a critique and others may may think it merely splitting hairs, satisfied that the poem's ending works quite well. It did, however, get me thinking about the Imagists who contend things should be self-evident.

Please don't misinterpret my comment (as I may have your poem to some extent). This poem is a gem as many of yours are.

i like the procession of colour, or assumed colour

the mist, severe gray, off-white, ghostly

a wave breaking here

stands back behind the cold grey eyes of white authority,

nice!! so nice i'll forget

the cold grey eyes of white authority

highly excusable in this case

What's interesting to me about it is that it could apply to so many places.This is a poem I'd like to talk about in one of those places with a group of people- there is a lot packed in it. The "trees behind the sheet of rain" is strange. Just not sure what that means. I think this is one of my favorites of yours.

Your many writes containing waterside related environments are very comforting and peacefull for me. Occasionally they strike a deeper chord, as this one did.

I detect apartheid as its theme....A fine white season comes to mind. TK U MLJ LV NV

living in these times and global accesses. TK U MLJ LV NV

This is very much a painted image, isn't it, Demure? The "mists of time" have white-washed reality, or else it's an old painting, aged by time, and thereby softened. Even with the deliberate word choices that indicate a painful truth, the mists paint over the pain, almost, and allow the strangers to "fade away". As if the artist has painted them out of the picture with "a stroke, off-white"... Very clever, Demure!

You've captured another time and presented it in ghostly wisps. Love how it fades in and out. Very haunting and just slightly spooky.

this works so well as a spoken piece. though the title suggests photograph, the words you've used, textured, layering, suggestion of movement, feels more the description of a painting as has already been mentioned. makes me wonder if 'sepia' could refer to a skin colour, a blending of that white authority and the enduring natives left to cope after the cold gray ships have departed.

a pleasure to read such skilful use of language.

Five.

This is the best poem of yours that I have read. Nothing to add to comments already expressed particularly by the mountaineer.

But I didn't see this as a particular photograph as some did, more a way of looking at the past.