Deadwater

Bloch, Chana

Primary Category: Literature / Poetry

Genre: Poem

Annotated by:
Aull, Felice
  • Date of entry: Feb-15-1996

Summary

The "muck" stirred up in the deadwater of a murky lake is a metaphor for the stirring up of old hostilities between a mother and her now adult child. This subtle poem strikingly evokes the psychological history of a difficult family relationship and the precariousness of an adult truce, "a cloud of silt endlessly / raining itself out."

Commentary

This poem identifies the fundamental, life-long conundrum and ambivalence of a parent-child relationship. Adults of any age can relate in some manner to the situation depicted so vividly here. It is interesting to pair this piece with forgiving my father by Lucille Clifton (see this database).

Primary Source

The Past Keeps Changing

Publisher

Sheep Meadow

Place Published

Riverdale-on-Hudson, N. Y.

Edition

1992