Lately I’ve been reading the late poet Max Ritvo’s 2016 poetry book “Four Reincarnations” for a class of mine, and I have to say analyzing two poems in particular has been very interesting.
I’m talking specifically about “The Senses” (Ritvo 6) and “Stalking My Ex-Girlfriend In A Pasture” (28) — even though they deal with different conflicts in the speaker’s life, there is still a very strong, recurring theme. This theme is feeling a state of peace before something inevitably ruins it (even if it is the speaker’s own mind), thus causing damage to the speaker’s mental and physical well-being.
Case in point: “The Senses.” This poem starts off with very pleasant imagery but quickly descends into the speaker having too many intrusive thoughts, simulating overthinking, i.e.”Everything feels so good to me: / my wool hat, / the cocoon of dryness in my throat” (lines 1-3), and then proceeding to repeat the words “think” or “thinking” 9 times in the rest of the 25 line poem.
Other case in point: “Stalking My Ex.” Initially describing the excitement of a new relationship, with a woman who claims you are a cart she can “teach [you] to be two bicycles” (7), the speaker is hopeful. However the entire poem is saturated with a tone of regret, as if the speaker is recalling all this from a defeated, almost vitriolic viewpoint. At this point, the speaker cannot go back to being the person he was before meeting this woman.
Essentially, “Four Reincarnations” functions as a memoir, describing the experiences of a man who knows how much time he has left; it’s actually more cynical the second time around.
Reference: Ritvo, Max. Four Reincarnations. Milkweed Editions, 2016.