Serenade and Aubade
Francis L.
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”Serenade and Aubade” comprises two poems offering perspectives on identity, fate, free will, and belonging. The first poem, ”Serenade for the Self-fulfilling,” takes inspiration from the form of a ghazal, and was inspired by Ragnar Kjartansson’s multimedia exhibition ”The Visitors” at SFMOMA. While a traditional serenade might greet a specific lover, this poem greets an audience of people, though it treats each audience member as an individual. The second poem, ”Aubade to Grass and God and Sea and Country,” takes on a much more personal tone, integrating lyrics from a Mandarin song called ”Little Grass.” The song is both compared and contrasted to the speaker’s experience, and the speaker is forced to come to a conclusion about his own circumstances and identity. The poem uses whitespace and shape to better convey the experiences of the speaker.
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Poet Mary Jo Bang writes, ”Speaking is / a way of living with the ruin we were given.” As a poet, when I write, I speak from a place of ”ruin,” from the bottom of my heart and the core of my mind. And sometimes this world—this ruin—would be untenable otherwise.