Ianuarie by Claudia Serea – Analysis and Commentary

 

IANUARIE BY CLAUDIA SEREA – ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

 

IANUARIE by Claudia Serea

 

The old year is dead!

Dead, cold, gone.

 

We drifted and swam through its wide river,

what a survival story that was.

 

And now we cling to the new one

like dawn to eyelashes,

 

like song

to guitar strings.

 

Like smoke

to fire.

https://www.issues.righthandpointing.net/136a

—Claudia Serea, “Ianuarie,” right hand pointing, retrieved January 1, 2020

The poem introduces itself forcefully with sentiment in exclamation and then steps through a series of highly perceptive, striking metaphors, closing incisively. Brilliant.

 

No idea why the poem’s title is in Romanian.

 

 

...like song to guitar strings.