原創詩：
The states when they black out and lie there rolling??? when they turn
To something transcontinental??? move by??? drawing moonlight out of the great
One-sided stone hung off the starboard wingtip??? some sleeper next to
An engine is groaning for coffee??? and there is faintly coming in
Somewhere the vast beast-whistle of space. In the galley with its racks
Of trays??? she rummages for a blanket??? and moves in her slim tailored
Uniform to pin it over the cry at the top of the door. As though she blew
The door down with a silent blast from her lungs??? frozen??? she is black
Out finding herself??? with the plane nowhere and her body taken by the throat
The undying cry of the void??? falling??? living??? beginning to be something
That no one has ever been and lived through??? screaming without enough air
Still neat??? lipsticked??? stockinged??? girdled by regulation??? her hat
Still on??? her arms and legs in no world??? and yet spaced also strangely
With utter placid rightness on thin air??? taking her time??? she holds it
In many places??? and now, still thousands of feet from her death she seems
To slow??? she develops interest??? she turns in her maneuverable body
To watch it. She is hung high up in the overwhelming middle of things in her
Self??? in low body-whistling wrapped intensely??? in all her dark dance-weight
Coming down from a marvellous leap??? with the delaying, dumfounding ease
Of a dream of being drawn??? like endless moonlight to the harvest soil
Of a central state of one’s country??? with a great gradual warmth coming
Over her??? floating??? finding more and more breath in what she has been using
For breath??? as the levels become more human??? seeing clouds placed honestly
Below her left and right??? riding slowly toward them??? she clasps it all
To her and can hang her hands and feet in it in peculiar ways??? and
Her eyes opened wide by wind, can open her mouth as wide??? wider and suck
All the heat from the cornfields??? can go down on her back with a feeling
Of stupendous pillows stacked under her??? and can turn??? turn as to someone
In bed??? smile, understood in darkness??? can go away??? slant??? slide
Off tumbling??? into the emblem of a bird with its wings half-spread
Or whirl madly on herself??? in endless gymnastics in the growing warmth
Of wheatfields rising toward the harvest moon.??? There is time to live
In superhuman health??? seeing mortal unreachable lights far down seeing
An ultimate highway with one late priceless car probing it??? arriving
In a square town??? and off her starboard arm the glitter of water catches
The moon by its one shaken side??? scaled, roaming silver??? My God it is good
And evil??? lying in one after another of all the positions for love
Making??? dancing??? sleeping??? and now cloud wisps at her no
Raincoat??? no matter??? all small towns brokenly brighter from inside
Cloud??? she walks over them like rain??? bursts out to behold a Greyhound
Bus shooting light through its sides??? it is the signal to go straight
Down like a glorious diver??? then feet first??? her skirt stripped beautifully
Up??? her face in fear-scented cloths??? her legs deliriously bare??? then
Arms out??? she slow-rolls over??? steadies out??? waits for something great
To take control of her??? trembles near feathers??? planes head-down
The quick movements of bird-necks turning her head??? gold eyes the insight-
eyesight of owls blazing into the hencoops??? a taste for chicken overwhelming
Her??? the long-range vision of hawks enlarging all human lights of cars
Freight trains??? looped bridges??? enlarging the moon racing slowly
Through all the curves of a river??? all the darks of the midwest blazing
From above. A rabbit in a bush turns white??? the smothering chickens
Huddle??? for over them there is still time for something to live
With the streaming half-idea of a long stoop??? a hurtling??? a fall
That is controlled??? that plummets as it wills??? turns gravity
Into a new condition, showing its other side like a moon??? shining
New Powers??? there is still time to live on a breath made of nothing
But the whole night??? time for her to remember to arrange her skirt
Like a diagram of a bat??? tightly it guides her??? she has this flying-skin
Made of garments??? and there are also those sky-divers on
tv
sailing
In sunlight??? smiling under their goggles??? swapping batons back and forth
And He who jumped without a chute and was handed one by a diving
Buddy. She looks for her grinning companion??? white teeth??? nowhere
She is screaming??? singing hymns??? her thin human wings spread out
From her neat shoulders??? the air beast-crooning to her??? warbling
And she can no longer behold the huge partial form of the world??? now
She is watching her country lose its evoked master shape??? watching it lose
And gain??? get back its houses and peoples??? watching it bring up
Its local lights??? single homes??? lamps on barn roofs??? if she fell
Into water she might live??? like a diver??? cleaving??? perfect??? plunge
Into another??? heavy silver??? unbreathable??? slowing??? saving
Element: there is water??? there is time to perfect all the fine
Points of diving??? feet together??? toes pointed??? hands shaped right
To insert her into water like a needle??? to come out healthily dripping
And be handed a Coca-Cola??? there they are??? there are the waters
Of life??? the moon packed and coiled in a reservoir??? so let me begin
To plane across the night air of Kansas??? opening my eyes superhumanly
Bright??? to the damned moon??? opening the natural wings of my jacket
By Don Loper??? moving like a hunting owl toward the glitter of water
One cannot
just
fall??? just tumble screaming all that time??? one must
use
It
she is now through with all??? through all??? clouds??? damp??? hair
Straightened??? the last wisp of fog pulled apart on her face like wool revealing
New darks??? new progressions of headlights along dirt roads from chaos
And night??? a gradual warming??? a new-made, inevitable world of one’s own
Country??? a great stone of light in its waiting waters??? hold??? hold out
For water: who knows when what correct young woman must take up her body
And fly??? and head for the moon-crazed inner eye of midwest imprisoned
Water??? stored up for her for years??? the arms of her jacket slipping
Air up her sleeves to go??? all over her? What final things can be said
Of one who starts her sheerly in her body in the high middle of night
Air??? to track down water like a rabbit where it lies like life itself
Off to the right in Kansas? She goes toward??? the blazing-bare lake
Her skirts neat??? her hands and face warmed more and more by the air
Rising from pastures of beans??? and under her??? under chenille bedspreads
The farm girls are feeling the goddess in them struggle and rise brooding
On the scratch-shining posts of the bed??? dreaming of female signs
Of the moon??? male blood like iron??? of what is really said by the moan
Of airliners passing over them at dead of midwest midnight??? passing
Over brush fires??? burning out in silence on little hills??? and will wake
To see the woman they should be??? struggling on the rooftree to become
Stars: for her the ground is closer??? water is nearer??? she passes
It??? then banks??? turns??? her sleeves fluttering differently as she rolls
Out to face the east, where the sun shall come up from wheatfields she must
Do something with water??? fly to it??? fall in it??? drink it??? rise
From it??? but there is none left upon earth??? the clouds have drunk it back
The plants have sucked it down??? there are standing toward her only
The common fields of death??? she comes back from flying to falling
Returns to a powerful cry??? the silent scream with which she blew down
The coupled door of the airliner??? nearly??? nearly losing hold
Of what she has done??? remembers??? remembers the shape at the heart
Of cloud??? fashionably swirling??? remembers she still has time to die
Beyond explanation. Let her now take off her hat in summer air the contour
Of cornfields??? and have enough time to kick off her one remaining
Shoe with the toes??? of the other foot??? to unhook her stockings
With calm fingers, noting how fatally easy it is to undress in midair
Near death??? when the body will assume without effort any position
Except the one that will sustain it??? enable it to rise??? live
Not die??? nine farms hover close??? widen??? eight of them separate, leaving
One in the middle??? then the fields of that farm do the same??? there is no
Way to back off??? from her chosen ground??? but she sheds the jacket
With its silver sad impotent wings??? sheds the bat’s guiding tailpiece
Of her skirt??? the lightning-charged clinging of her blouse??? the intimate
Inner flying-garment of her slip in which she rides like the holy ghost
Of a virgin??? sheds the long windsocks of her stockings??? absurd
Brassiere??? then feels the girdle required by regulations squirming
Off her: no longer monobuttocked??? she feels the girdle flutter??? shake
In her hand??? and float??? upward??? her clothes rising off her ascending
Into cloud??? and fights away from her head the last sharp dangerous shoe
Like a dumb bird??? and now will drop in
soon
now will drop
In like this??? the greatest thing that ever came to Kansas??? down from all
Heights??? all levels of American breath??? layered in the lungs from the frail
Chill of space to the loam where extinction slumbers in corn tassels thickly
And breathes like rich farmers counting: will come along them after
Her last superhuman act??? the last slow careful passing of her hands
All over her unharmed body??? desired by every sleeper in his dream:
Boys finding for the first time their loins filled with heart’s blood
Widowed farmers whose hands float under light covers to find themselves
Arisen at sunrise??? the splendid position of blood unearthly drawn
Toward clouds??? all feel something??? pass over them as she passes
Her palms over
her
long legs
her
small breasts??? and deeply between
Her thighs??? her hair shot loose from all pins??? streaming in the wind
Of her body??? let her come openly??? trying at the last second to land
On her back??? This is it
this
All those who find her impressed
In the soft loam??? gone down??? driven well into the image of her body
The furrows for miles flowing in upon her where she lies very deep
In her mortal outline??? in the earth as it is in cloud??? can tell nothing
But that she is there??? inexplicable??? unquestionable??? and remember
That something broke in them as well??? and began to live and die more
When they walked for no reason into their fields to where the whole earth
Caught her??? interrupted her maiden flight??? told her how to lie she cannot
Turn??? go away??? cannot move??? cannot slide off it and assume another
Position??? no sky-diver with any grin could save her??? hold her in his arms
Plummet with her??? unfold above her his wedding silks??? she can no longer
Mark the rain with whirling women that take the place of a dead wife
Or the goddess in Norwegian farm girls??? or all the back-breaking whores
Of Wichita. All the known air above her is not giving up quite one
Breath??? it is all gone??? and yet not dead??? not anywhere else
Quite??? lying still in the field on her back??? sensing the smells
Of incessant growth try to lift her??? a little sight left in the corner
Of one eye??? fading??? seeing something wave??? lies believing
That she could have made it??? at the best part of her brief goddess
State??? to water??? gone in headfirst??? come out smiling??? invulnerable
Girl in a bathing-suit ad??? but she is lying like a sunbather at the last
Of moonlight??? half-buried in her impact on the earth??? not far
From a railroad trestle??? a water tank??? she could see if she could
Raise her head from her modest hole??? with her clothes beginning
To come down all over Kansas??? into bushes??? on the dewy sixth green
Of a golf course??? one shoe??? her girdle coming down fantastically
On a clothesline, where it belongs??? her blouse on a lightning rod:
Lies in the fields??? in
this
field??? on her broken back as though on
A cloud she cannot drop through??? while farmers sleepwalk without
Their women from houses??? a walk like falling toward the far waters
Of life??? in moonlight??? toward the dreamed eternal meaning of their farms
Toward the flowering of the harvest in their hands??? that tragic cost
Feels herself go??? go toward??? go outward??? breathes at last fully
Not??? and tries??? less??? once??? tries??? tries
ah, god—
詩的分析與詮釋
這首詩呈現了一位女性的生動而超現實的旅程，她可能是一名空服員或跳傘者，在生與死之間的深刻時刻中穿梭。詩中的意象豐富而複雜，融合了飛行、空間、自然與人類情感的元素。詩探討了超越、死亡以及人類身體與世界廣闊之間的親密聯繫。
講述者的經歷在夢幻般的狀態中展開，她同時在物理上墜落和精神上上升。詩捕捉了生命的脆弱與人類精神的力量之間的緊張。女性的制服和受限的衣物象徵著社會的約束，隨著她逐漸接近純粹存在的狀態而逐漸脫落。詩的語調從緊張與恐懼轉變為對存在的平靜接受與敬畏。
月光、雲朵和廣袤的風景的意象喚起了一種宇宙的規模，而對衣物和身體感受的詳細描述則將詩牢牢根植於人類的經驗中。詩還對比了飛機的機械世界與農場和自然的有機世界，暗示著科技與自然之間的和解。
背景與作者介紹
雖然詩本身並未明確提及作者，但其風格和主題關注表明受到了20世紀中期美國詩人的影響，他們探索了飛行、空間和存在經驗的現代主義主題。詩中提到的唐·洛珀的夾克和中西部的背景暗示著根植於美國生活的文化和地理背景。
作者可能意在捕捉一位女性在兩個世界之間的複雜情感——既是扎根於地面又是飄渺的，既是凡人又是永恆的。這首詩可以被視為對人類狀況的沉思，特別是在科技進步和空間與自然的廣闊未知面前。
反思與個人回應
閱讀這首詩引發了強烈的情感反應。生動的意象和強烈的身體與精神旅程邀請讀者反思自己在恐懼、自由和轉變中的經歷。詩中描繪的女性擁抱脆弱與力量的形象令人鼓舞且感人。
墜落卻飛翔、失去控制卻獲得洞察的感覺，深刻地共鳴作為生活挑戰和深刻變化時刻的隱喻。詩鼓勵讀者即使在不確定和絕望的時刻也能找到美與意義。
教育價值與學生學習要點
這首詩為學生提供了豐富的材料，以探索幾個關鍵的文學和生活課題：
- 意象與象徵：學生可以學習詩人如何使用生動的意象和象徵（如月光、飛行、衣物）來傳達複雜的情感和思想。
- 生命與死亡的主題：詩提供了一種在詩意背景下討論存在主義主題的方式。
- 結構與風格：自由流動的幾乎意識流的風格可以幫助學生欣賞現代詩的技巧。
- 情感表達：詩展示了詩歌如何捕捉強烈的情感和精神經歷。
在實際層面上，學生可以將這些課程應用於寫作自己的描述性或反思性詩歌，學習如何通過具體的意象表達抽象的思想。
生活與學習中的應用案例
- 創意寫作：激勵學生寫作關於個人轉變或危機時刻的作品。
- 文學研究：幫助學生分析複雜的詩歌形式和主題。
- 情感覺察：鼓勵討論恐懼、勇氣和接受。
- 文化理解：提供對美國風景和文化象徵的見解。
閱讀理解練習
-
詩的主要背景是什麼？
a) 城市街道
b) 一架飛機和中西部上空的天空
c) 日出時的農場
d) 太空站 -
詩中的女性象徵著什麼？
a) 一位迷失的旅行者
b) 面對死亡的人類精神
c) 舞台上的舞者
d) 農夫的妻子 -
以下哪一項最能描述詩的語調？
a) 快樂而無憂
b) 整體緊張和恐懼
c) 夢幻而沉思
d) 生氣和叛逆 -
當女性墜落時，她的衣物發生了什麼？
a) 它保持完好無損
b) 她一件件地脫掉
c) 它變成了翅膀
d) 它變得潮濕而沉重 -
詩中月光的意義是什麼？
a) 它代表危險
b) 它象徵指引和轉變
c) 它是恐懼的來源
d) 它是過去的象徵
答案：
- b) 一架飛機和中西部上空的天空
- b) 面對死亡的人類精神
- c) 夢幻而沉思
- b) 她一件件地脫掉
- b) 它象徵指引和轉變
結論
這首詩是對人類經驗在生與死邊緣的深刻探索，融合了豐富的意象與深刻的情感洞察。它在文學分析、情感表達和文化反思方面提供了寶貴的課程。對於學生來說，這是一篇具有挑戰性但回報豐厚的文本，鼓勵智力和個人成長。通過學習這首詩，學習者可以更深刻地欣賞詩歌捕捉存在複雜性的力量，並激發有意義的反思。
