Past their limits<\/em><\/p>\nR.M. Engelhardt acknowledges that there is a difference between the passive participant and those who live a passion-driven life, but can often be seen in \u201cVersus\u201d wondering if there is a difference in the end. Passion clearly perpetuates the creative \u00a0imperative, manifest in poets like Engelhardt as non-negotiable, but to what end? There comes a time in the life of the poet where this question has to be dealt with. It is one thing to accept the terms of \u201cthe muse\u201d. It is another to toil in the direction of some outcome, some goal. What, beyond that yielding and succumbing, is the poet desirous of? Fame, significance, appreciation, relevance?<\/p>\n
The poet succumbs because he or she must, but it doesn\u2019t end there. The poet is driven to more just as the living are driven to interact in this world beyond survival. We do more than eat and breed and sleep, there is something that pushes us. But why?<\/p>\n
In the years that I have been aware of Engelhardt\u2019s work, it is this willingness to examine these concerns head on and in a surprisingly candid manner that I think captures my interest the most in his work, which often gets into the problematic terrain of ego, and the ways that we relate to one another through not only our life\u2019s work but through love and community. He states rather directly in \u201cVersus\u201d that poetry is dead, he comments on the state of popular culture and asks the obvious questions about the poet\u2019s role in it. Why bother, and why persist?<\/p>\n
Persistence, I think, is the theme in Engelhardt\u2019s work that prompts people to characterize him as \u201cromantic\u201d as many of the poems convey a sense of pining, portraying people desirous not only of love but of transcendent relationships. \u201cShe believes in something unseen\u201d, (8, \u201cPerhaps\u201d) \u201cI\u2019m just sick of passing romances\u201d. (\u201cIn Cleopatra\u2019s Eyes\u201d, 9)<\/p>\n
In \u2018Versus\u201d, we see that relationship between the speakers and both issues: wanting to do more than write, wanting to do have more than a date on a Saturday night. (\u201ctoys\u201d, 6, \u201cMore than just another dance\u201d, 2) This idea of wanting more, wanting to believe in and have faith in that but at the same time considering one\u2019s observations and wanting to be rational.<\/p>\n
Persistence then is challenged by cynicism, both inner and external:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe time for poets has passed\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd someone once told me that honest people don\u2019t exist anymore in the 21st<\/sup> century\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cAnd someone once told me \u2018That love\u2026is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Do we persist, press on anyway? In \u201cNa\u00efve\u201d, \u00a0Engelhardt describes the urge to avoid the trainwreck. In \u201cTruth\u201d we see people opening boxes, digging through metaphorical \u201cboxes\u201d of expectations mingled with mythology. What happens when people confront truth? Some thrive, some perish, some vanish immediately in the sight of their realizations. This brings us back, again and again, to the questions in \u201cVersus\u201d. What are we after? And can we get there?<\/p>\n
\u2018We all grow older\/Still trying to find our way\/Like children\u201d (\u201cAny Day Now\u201d, 11)<\/p>\n
Many poets grapple with a maturing phase not unlike the point around mid-life when one begins to really take stock about where to put energy, what to be concerned with and what to let go of. Some describe it much like finding their way, having gone through what some describe as a period similar to the honeymoon phase of a relationship. There are burdens in the poet\u2019s world, choices about resources and time and energy and in the beginning there can be a sense of eventual payoff that in later years we learn can be quite elusive. There\u2019s no denying that Engelhardt has love for the craft, but he pushes us to consider what that means, and to perhaps distinguish between the love of writing and the expectations. In some instances, the object of love can be easily interchangeable with \u201cthe muse\u201d as both are subjects in these poems of that transcendent longing. The love that leaves for the man who promises everything, the \u201cangel\u201d who vanishes, the losses are connected: the poet wants to believe in more, wants to have faith in more, but life can be a series of losses, followed by grief.<\/p>\n
Engelhardt closes \u201cVersus\u201d with a shout-out to those who persist, who don\u2019t give up, who keep searching and don\u2019t give in, who stay true to the realm of dreams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cVersus\u201d, R.M. Engelhardt Pushing verses Past their limits R.M. Engelhardt acknowledges that there is a difference between the passive participant and those who live a passion-driven life, but can often be seen in \u201cVersus\u201d wondering if there is a difference in the end. Passion clearly perpetuates the creative \u00a0imperative, manifest \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"\n"Versus" by R.M. 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