Notes on Thought and Vision & the Wise Sappho

Rating:
Summary: Delicate, Not Brittle by Padma J. Thornlyre
Review: At her best, H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) is a poet. Her novels all display a poet's sense of immediacy, but are sometimes confusing for their interior "scapes" which are frequently all too fluid. Her poetry, however, directs the "flow" deliberately and masterfully. "Notes on Thought and Vision" is a rare example (like Nikos Kazantzakis's "The Saviors of God") wherein the distinction between poetry and prose evaporates. These "Notes" are intimate and compelling, watery and feminine, mystical and yet (strangely) earthy--composed of octopus, seaweed, and salt. Her language is delicate, but not brittle, her point of view keenly sensitive but never timid. "Notes" is an intelligent reflection on the sub- or un-conscious, and on the source(s) of poetic inspiration, from the only person, male or female, who ever wrote openly of her experience as Sigmund Freud's patient (see H.D.'s "Tribute to Freud"). "Notes on Thought and Vision" is a short book (and a small one), which contains a very large message that celebrates the feminine and the divine as one and the same. A must-read for any woman who seeks to explore her creativity and for any man who seeks his own "anima".

Rating:
Summary: H.D. being H.D.
Review: I have a love/hate relationship with H.D. - I lack her enthusiasm for Greek and Egyptian mythology (I'd rather move a bit further to the Southeast) but I appreciate what she does with the mythology. Thus I am never quite sure to what audience I can recommend her.

The second piece in this book, "The Wise Sappho" is a meditation on the poetry of Sappho - a poetic meditation. If you have read Sappho, this is a must read piece as both Sappho and H.D. are talismen of the feminist strand of poets.

The first piece "Notes on Thought and Vision" needs to be placed in time. H.D. speaks of her discovery of a higher level of consciousness, a level she refers to as jelly-fish mind as she imagines it as a jelly-fish above us (for brain consciousness) or beside us (for womb consciousness) with tenacles into our body. Her examples come primarily from art, Greek mythology or "the Galilean" (Jesus). She specifically includes scientists among those dependent upon this jelly-fish consciousness. However, she cautions that body and mind are not to be neglected. Her description of her experience serves as an important insight into her poetry and prose and as one ray into understanding the literary circle in which she roamed e.g. Ezra Pound.