A POEM BY MARTHA COLLINS EXPLICATED BY DR RAMESH CHANDRA MUKHOPADHYAYAOut of my own pocket By Martha Collins Light drifts from stalled Aegean ships to the bare table Where pages rise in a brief Breeze then fall open palms After a prayer. What is required this time? Paid my dues. Pain was referred to another place. Point by point Settled in by the leaded Window. Wind out of my sails Then I considered the shape I was in. Out of my own Pocket, I said . offering pure Air. All done with tiny mirrors Sewn into the cloth Nothing now but to turn The page, and then I hear In my Book the voice not mine but Mine the slipping down Again , the slope shaft strip, old bones preserved, pressed into the coal. Not the girl not even the wailing mother harbored rage trailing the shimmering ships and not the ships or the whispering but a woman turning away from the crowd taking her keys from her pocket, a woman on her way on her way home Explication The title of the poem Out of my own pocket is curious itself. Pocket means a hollow commonly sewn into a garment.Pocket could there fore be a metaphor for the empty space sewn into the garment in which ones precious things and money and the like could be kept. The phrase Out of my own pocket tells us that the poem to follow should be spoken in first person, Secondly the speaker tells us that it is from the speakers own resource something has been spent or invested.One wonders what could the speaker spend and to what end ! The poem now opens with light drifting from stalled Aegean ships to the bare table. The Aegean sea connects a host of large or narrow sea passages and shallow gulfs where the primitive vessels could ply. The Aegean sea witnessed the first ships on its waves as early as around 3500 BC. The Aegean ships are symbolic of the primitive spirit of adventure and maritime trade of ancient Greece in particular and man in general. The Aegean sea however reminds us of the sad story of king Aegeus .His son Theseus went to kill Minotaur. Minotaur was a fierce monster. If he succeeded in his adventure he must raise white sail so that his father Aegeus could understand that his son was coming back home victorious. But it is a pity that Theseus forgot to raise the white sail on his way back home. And Aegeus saw the black sails coming back to Athens. Aegeus thought that his son was outdone by the monster. Out of grief he leaped into the sea and embraced his death. The sea where king Aegeus jumped to death is the Aegean sea. A stalled Aegean ship must allude to the sad death of Aegeus or a stunted Aegean civilization or Bronze Age civilization around the Aegean Sea . The stalled ship implies that it is motionless on account of scanty wind. The stalled ship is there in front of the poet. But light drifts from the stalled ship to the bare table.The ship might stand for the body of the poet or the being of the poet. The body might suffer from asphyxia or oxygen hunger. The want of wind might stand for inspiration of the poet. The poets being could be a stalled ship that suffers from lack of inspiration.The speakers awareness is the light.The awareness or the light drifts from the stalled ship to the bare table or the naked reality about . The whole story could be summed up in an imagery of light drifting from a picture of a stalled ship in a book to the bare table on which the book is placed.Why does the light drift? Perhaps there is a sudden breeze that moves the flame of the lamp .The pages of the book rise in a brief breeze and then fall. The book now looks like opened palms after a prayer.People pray with folded hands. After prayer we have our palms open ready to give and ready to ask for or accept any boon whatever.What do open palms require or ask for? The speaker tells us that the dues have been paid. Pain has been referred to another place. Point by point.The book could be as well the metaphor of the poets being. Its pages flutter in a sudden breeze of inspiration . But the inspiration does not linger. The open palms could ask for inspiration.The window panes are made of small pieces of glass set with lead. A touch of medievalism. The window panes are shut. So the wind becomes shut out. The wind is out of the sails. The shocks from the world without are shut out.Then the speaker considers the shape he or she was in. He was in the stalled ship which could not move as because there was no wind from without. Now the windows have been shut.The speaker becomes a yogi shutting out the sights and sounds of the world without.Now the speaker invokes inspiration from within.The speaker says that he/she offers pure air out of his/her own pocket. And all is done with tiny mirrors sewn into the cloth. A mirror is a highly polished surface that reflects something else faithfully. Putting out the mirror that was in the pocket the speaker surely looks at it hard and looks behind and looks beside.And the polished mirror sewn into cloth is a protection. It protects one from the freaks of nature or the freaks of the world without. So now the speaker turns a new leaf of her life. Life is itself a book. One who lives composes the book of his/her life. Turning the page the speaker hears the voice not his or hers and yet hers. Therein the speaker discovers both the self and the nonself in her. The self is the observer , The self observes the nonself slipping down the slope shaft and getting stripped.Getting stripped the speaker discovers herself as sheer bones.The self observes the nonself as a bundle of bones—bones preserved and pressed into coal.Coal is the fuel that could kindle a fresh life. But the speaker finding her non self metamorphosed into coal becomes the self itself rid of all accidental attributes of rhe worldly life.The speaker is not the girl not even the wailing mother harbored rage trailing This is where the speaker discloses her identity. The speaker was a girl. She is a bereaved mother.The stalled ship was a metaphor to describe herself. She was a harboured rage trailing, now metamorphosed into coal that could ignite a conflagration. But that is the state of her nonself. Her self rid of all worldly attributes takes her key out of her pocket, a woman,on her way, on her way home. In fine we have our home away in some indeterminate place. We have locked our home and come for a sojourn in this world donning the nonself to participate in the weal and woe of life---the Aegean sea. This is a stark philosophical poem littered with surrealistic imagery where discrete images are juxtaposed.

Out of my own pocket

By Martha Collins

Explicated by Dr Ramesh Chandra Mukhopadhyaya

Light drifts from stalled

Aegean ships to the bare table

Where pages rise in a brief

 Breeze then fall open palms

After a prayer. What

 is required this time? Paid

 my dues. Pain was referred

to another place. Point by point

Settled in by the leaded

Window. Wind out of my sails

Then I considered the shape

I was in. Out of my own

 Pocket, I said . offering  pure

Air. All done with tiny mirrors

Sewn into the cloth

Nothing now but to turn

The page, and then I hear In  my

Book the voice not mine but

Mine the slipping down

Again , the slope shaft strip, old

 bones  preserved, pressed

into the coal. Not the girl

not even the wailing mother

harbored rage trailing

the shimmering ships and not

 the ships or the whispering

but a woman turning away

from the crowd taking her keys

from her pocket, a woman

on her way on her way home

Explication

 The title of the poem Out of  my own pocket is curious itself. Pocket means a hollow commonly sewn into a garment.Pocket could there fore be a metaphor for the empty space sewn into the garment  in which ones precious things and money and the like could be kept. The phrase Out of my own pocket tells us that the poem to follow should be spoken in first person, Secondly  the speaker tells us that it is from the speakers own resource  something has been spent or invested.One wonders what could the speaker spend and to what end !

The poem now opens with light drifting from stalled Aegean ships  to the bare table. The Aegean sea  connects a host of large or narrow sea passages and shallow gulfs  where the primitive vessels could ply. The Aegean  sea witnessed the first ships  on its waves as early as  around 3500 BC. The Aegean ships are symbolic of the primitive spirit of adventure and maritime trade of ancient Greece in particular and man in general. The Aegean sea however reminds us of the sad story of king Aegeus .His son Theseus went to kill Minotaur. Minotaur was a fierce monster. If  he succeeded in his adventure he must raise white sail so that his father Aegeus could understand that his son was coming back home victorious. But it is a pity that Theseus forgot to raise the white sail on his way back home. And Aegeus saw the black sails coming back to Athens. Aegeus thought that his son was outdone by the monster. Out of grief he leaped into the sea and embraced his death. The sea where king Aegeus jumped to death is the Aegean sea. A stalled Aegean ship must allude to the sad death of Aegeus or a stunted Aegean civilization or Bronze Age civilization around the Aegean Sea . The stalled ship implies that it is motionless on account of scanty wind. The stalled ship is there in front of the poet. But light drifts from the stalled ship to the bare table.The ship might stand for the body of the poet or the being of the poet. The body might suffer from asphyxia or oxygen hunger. The want of wind might stand for inspiration of the poet. The poets being could be a stalled ship that suffers from  lack of inspiration.The speakers awareness  is the light.The awareness or the light drifts from the stalled ship  to the bare table or the naked reality about . The whole story could be  summed up in an imagery of light drifting from a picture of a stalled ship in a book to the bare table on which the book is placed.Why does the light drift? Perhaps there is a sudden breeze that moves the flame of the lamp .The  pages of the book rise in a brief breeze and then fall. The book now looks like opened palms after a prayer.People pray with folded hands. After prayer we have our palms open ready to give and ready to ask for or accept any boon whatever.What do open palms require or ask for? The speaker tells us that the dues have been paid. Pain has been referred to another place. Point by point.The book could be as well the metaphor of the poets being. Its pages flutter in a  sudden breeze of inspiration . But the inspiration does not linger. The open palms could ask for inspiration.The window panes are made of small pieces of glass set with lead. A touch of medievalism. The window panes are shut. So the wind becomes shut out. The wind is out of the sails. The shocks from the world without are shut out.Then the speaker considers the shape he or she was in. He was in the stalled ship which could not move as because there was no wind from without. Now the windows have been shut.The speaker becomes a yogi shutting out the sights and sounds of the world without.Now the speaker invokes  inspiration from within.The speaker says that he/she  offers pure air out of his/her own pocket. And all is done with tiny mirrors sewn into the cloth. A mirror is a highly polished surface that reflects something else faithfully. Putting out the mirror that was in the pocket the speaker surely looks at it hard  and looks  behind and looks beside.And the polished mirror sewn into cloth is a protection. It protects one from the freaks of nature or the freaks of the world without. So now the speaker turns a new leaf of her life. Life is itself a book. One who lives composes the book of his/her life. Turning the page the speaker hears the voice not his or hers and yet hers. Therein the speaker discovers both the self and the nonself in her. The self is the observer , The self observes the nonself slipping down the slope shaft and getting stripped.Getting stripped the speaker discovers herself as sheer bones.The self observes the nonself as a bundle of bones—bones preserved and pressed into coal.Coal is the fuel that could kindle a fresh life. But the speaker finding her non self  metamorphosed into coal becomes the self itself rid of all accidental attributes of rhe worldly life.The speaker is not the girl not even the wailing mother harbored rage trailing This is where the speaker discloses her identity. The speaker was a girl. She is a bereaved mother.The stalled ship was a metaphor to describe herself. She was a harboured rage trailing, now metamorphosed into coal that could ignite a conflagration. But that is the state of her nonself. Her self rid of all worldly attributes takes her key out of her pocket, a woman,on her way, on her way home. In fine we have our home away in some indeterminate place. We have locked our home and come for a sojourn in this world donning the nonself  to participate in the weal and woe of life---the Aegean sea.

This is a stark philosophical poem littered with surrealistic imagery where discrete images are juxtaposed.