I felt as if Robert Hass's poems were easy to read but difficult at times to understand. Meditation at Lagunitas was great poem, but it was difficult to understand where exactly Hass was going. Is he speaking about a woman he used to love, that is no longer in his life? He seems to reflect on memories of holding and being around this certain woman. When Hass states, "All the new thinking is about loss," is Hass referring to this woman who he once shared something with? This is something that rattled me for a second and kept me thinking.
Dragonflies Mating was another one of Hass's poems in which I found really interesting. The poem seems to reflect on certain stories about indian belief and life in the mountains. This short poem was a lot easier to follow considering it was one poem basically broken down into short stories. I liked the second part of the poem in which Hass discusses the Coyote and how the world was made, but over all, this short poem was fun to read and easy to understand.
Robert Hass's last poem, Faint Music, has some relation to Meditation at Lagunitas. In Faint Music, the narrator is discussing his feelings for a certain woman but it seems as if this woman has already fallen for another male named nick? You can see that the narrator has feelings for this woman, but it seems as if she is just using him for sex and comfort. Then the narrator goes on to describe the world as being full of pain, with some type of singing involved. He states, "First the ego, and then pain, and then the singing." Is this something he feels because of the woman? Would someone like to explain?
What I particularly enjoy about Hass's poetry is his ability to use beautiful, romantic language to convey post-modern, often very sad themes. In "Faint Music", the main character is about to commit suicide and is standing on a bridge. He's heart-broken after finding out his girl friend cheated on him. Then he begins to think about a mundane subject, such as why theres seafood but no "land food", and falls asleep. In this poem, Hass exposes the sexual vulnerability of men, and the way that an emotionally painful situation manifests itself. "First the ego, and then pain, and then the singing." I feel like these are the stages of grief, and the coming to terms with grief, for Hass.
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