Hypercompendia

One of our locals has tried her hand at hypertext poetry and it has led me to wonder at the use of hypertext to uncover those deeper meanings of metaphorical poetry.  Here’s Mary Ellen’s first stanza:

I dream in fuchsia of the coming of the day
when all the madness will have quietly gone away.
I seek the clearness of the laughing Buddha’s gaze
To harness wisdom, and to clarify my stay
Amidst the starkness of the ones who’ve lost their way.

Now Mary Ellen has played with color here–and my own settings don’t jive with her original poem–and while one might suspect that the colored text represents links, in this case, it is the underlining of the text that establishes the link.  The coloring is the choice of the poet for another use. 

Aside from the rhyme and structure, let’s look at its statement composed of the text within the stanza first. Since we’re not concerned here right now with a pro analysis of the poem but rather with the use of hypertext, my own unprofessional interpretation will have to suffice.  I see the hope in the first line evidenced by the idea of dream and the color fuchsia. This hope would exclude what is seen as ‘madness’, likely a generality of the masses and the current state of society (as the poet sees it).  Then there is the seeking to meet that hope, with the happy yellow of ‘laughing’ and the suggestion of the peace of Buddha, as well as the wisdom which he represents.  The speaker wishes to understand or ‘clarify’ his place in the world, despite the relative emptiness or ‘starkness’ of the rest of society.

Not necessarily what every reader would see, and different still from what the poet may have been trying to say. Therefore, we can follow the provided links and what they tell us about the poem over and above the stated message.

That coming up on the next entry…