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I've lost count, the number of times I've been asked to read this poem by William Carlos Williams, and reflect via some critical analysis. It just happened again. I fear I've run out of things to say. But poetess Mary Oliver, in her poetry handbook, says it perfectly. "The Red Wheelbarrow", arguably the most (or least?) minimalist poem in American history, is over-read. But it still holds secrets. Of course, Oliver's opinion of it makes sense only if you read the poem first:
" so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens "
Just like that, it's over. The poem abandons you. But Oliver says:
"If there is any single poem that might serve as a 'text' for a discussion of free verse... this eight-line poem has passed through endless scrutiny, and still it refuses to give up all its secrets.
What does its apparent simplicity mean? Perhaps that for this writer a poem is not a matter of some serious predetermined subject, but of concentrated focus and attention upon an "ordinary" simple subject - a mere scene - then, through the elevation of art, the scene is lifted into the realm of something quite extraordinary and memorable."
The ordinary becomes extraordinary. Embracing the beauty in small, simple things. Amen.
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- Mary Oliver, "A Poetry Handbook", (1994)