All Comments on 'a stroke of luck'

I said I found your poem very moving. To me is is a statement on loss and I am interested as to why you used "own" twice, although in different ways. The simply rhyme and placement of "none" feels like the center of the poem to me.

anything I have to say has no value, no comment, but I am glad to see you are alive and well, and well

thanks

and

5ed

Firstly, it is so good to see you and that you haven't deserted Lit altogether! Secondly I too read a sadness here, loss perhaps but the images are beautiful and familiar. I reality I hate to see the demise of any tree but particularly an oak, the most embracing and noble of trees. Loss of a steady presence, a landmark in ones life is wrenching.

I wasn't taken at first, turned everything off, walked outside, looked at trees. (not oak, I wondered if that was significant) came back, looked again. still looking but I see something.

I see no loss here, only a metamorphic change. I don't think this is about a tree; it's about change and enlightenment.

HarryHill, an oak tree is more crisp than other trees. It makes a difference imagewise--the contrast between a tree and a shadow.

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Angeline, this shadow doesn't owe a portion of a lawn or of a river... --this shadow is with itself.

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Tristesse2, yes, familiar images. And a surprise. The second part of the image is totally contradictory. It's an example of creating an image by the poetry itself. Such constructions have to be gentle, believable. This Angeline's observations and the poem's Tristesse2's final image--work together.

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Belated welcome to HH.

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Warm regards to all three of you,

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senna jawa (wlodek)

Greenmountaineer here, senna jawa. For some reason, Lit is only accepting my comments as anonymous.

I read "a stroke of luck" this morning and didn't wish to make a hasty comment. I find your work very thought provoking and challenging and wanted to read it again. I didn't feel a sadness in either reading, rather a connection between the two stanzas which on the surface appear to be contradictory as you mention in your comment. As odd as it may seem perhaps to some, I felt comfort, rather than sadness in this enjoyable poem.

Greenmountaineer and others, my poems are but a psychological test :-) *** Best regards, SJ (or Wlodek) *** PS. I hope to add more later.

I'm interested in the title. Stroke of luck implies, to me, the stoke of a clock and thus the movement of the sun. The clock struck luck, and the tree disappears. I like that. The first line - among blue skies - made me think of plurals. Why not in a blue sky? Am I over thinking ? Probably. But it's a very welcome change to wonder that.

I think stroke of luck is the poem itself, that where the two stanza meet sharing the same single point between opposites that become neither. I'm over thinking.

[1+2, and that's all--(1/2): the main text, (2/2): the title]. *** Angelina's and Tristesse2 interpretation was natural(!) and fundamental. The oak has vanished. There is an undeniable loss. (More about it later). *** Then there is the "reflection" from the shadow, as HarryHill and Greenmountaineer (a poetic nickname) seem to stress it. *** Thus there seem a peaceful resolution: there is a loss, while some enlightenment is derived from it *** This means-- I think--an agreement. *** I'd like to mention the complex nature of the light reflected from the oak, with all its boughs, branches, shoots... All this is lost, the shadow is plain--a silhouette, it has no 3-dimensional oak's quality. But the shadow still returns light (or attempts too). *** It is still possible for the shadow (to attempt) to feel harmony, at least in its own mind. One could call it "happiness".

Medical condition "stroke".

For awhile I considered the two stanza to be as close as English could get to the symbolism of oriental characters. some kismet in their juxtaposition may say something entirely different than what the two say separately.

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It may all be misdirection and a Oak the same as any other crisp cut stencil against a light holding sky. *shutting up now*