Blossom

My goodness, has it been a while. In case you have forgotten the author's name due to extreme inactivity, my name is Cale Montoya. If you are new to my blog, welcome. If you are coming back, hello again. If you are Cale Montoya, where in the world have you been??

The answer: Wedding planning, getting married (04/24/24), moving into a new apartment, living married, working full time as a screenwriter at BYUtv creating our own original show, and grinding the spring/summer classes here at BYU. But you know what? No matter the excuse, I have missed posting on this page every Friday. In fact, I even tried to get myself back into the habit a few weeks ago with the #oneaday campaign...

The bottom line is this, I want to be the best writer my age and I'm never gonna do that sitting around all day am I? ...not saying that I do or anything... Like my home page says: "The best way to get better at writing is to write," so here I am, months later. I apologize if you used to look forward to these and I apologize to myself for slacking in my passion and love for writing.

In light of trying to reignite my blog, I brewed up a poem last night to compete against any other. I dug deep and surfed the symbolism for hours. I used words I never had before and thought outside of the box (like a good poet should). So, dig deep and think outside of the box with me on this one; And by all means, "Surf the symbolism!"

Enjoy:

"Blossom"

Tattered segments sprawled about,

Gleamed against the twilight.

Shattered, broken, strewn without

Its shape before the all-plight.

Droplets scattered freely by,

Glistened in a splatter.

First t'was naught, then seconds fly

To join the fatal matter.

Chaos littered in a heap,

And at its focal, laying:

A petalled thing, wont to weep;

Lost solitude for praying.

The blossom, in its flawless state,

Could hear the ugly cluster

Murmur on, with green-eyed prate,

Its beauty and its luster.

And in the midst of harried blows,

From splintered bits array,

The culprit stooped and snatched the rose,

And swept the vase away.

The stem and bloom had found relief

Within the sewer's hands,

And with it, grew a new belief:

Heed not their vain demands.

Don't ponder on a lowly call,

To falter from your token;

And just because you sprout in-tall,

Don't break your never broken.

- Cale Kenneth Montoya (06/20/24)

Did your college years of "Reading Poetry" class pay off? Like I mentioned before, you have to dig deep, so if you didn't gather a theme or understand the main focus, go read it again. If it still doesn't make sense, or, if you think you got it, allow me to peel back the layers and walk you through it (like a back-stage tour).

First, let's look at this stanza:

"Tattered segments sprawled about,

Gleamed against the twilight.

Shattered, broken, strewn without

Its shape before the all-plight."

Okay, so "tattered segments..." --We know that "tattered" typically means "ripped" or "torn" right? And "segments" is just a synonym to "pieces." So let's say, visually, that there are rigged pieces of something "sprawled about" (all over the place). Good! Okay, let's keep going.

"Gleamed against the twilight..." Hmmm, okay so when something is "gleaming" it must be shining or simmering, right? --"Against the twilight," gives us those context clues too. Interesting, alright, so if something is "tattered" and "gleaming" at the same time, we can safely rule out that it isn't any type of cloth or fine material (which "tattered" may have made us think at first). So now we know that these pieces are broken bits of something harder that actually have the ability to "gleam."

Right, then: "Shattered, broken, strewn without..." We know "shattered" and "broken," or, at least, we should or that would be awkward. We also know that these adjectives have to be referring, again, to the same subject as the last two lines because no other subject has been presented. Now, this next strategy one is slightly difficult to catch if you are unfamiliar with the way poetry is read. It is less difficult to catch if you know this general rule of thumb: If a line in a stanza has no punctuation, the author has, almost always, intended for it to be that way. Why? Because it implies that the next line is a continuation of the same sentence. For example:

With weary breath, I ran

To catch that bearded man.

Interesting, huh? Okay so with that knowledge, look at this line in the stanza again: "...strewn without" --strewn(spread around) without what? Well, let's let the next line tell us!

"...It's shape before the all-plight." Ah! So: "strewn without its shape..." When an object is "without shape" it's safe to assume that it either never had one (like water), or that it had one but is no longer that shape anymore; And since we know that these pieces are shattered and broken, we'll take the "it had shape once" option. But what in the world does: "before the all-plight" mean? Let's start, again, with what we know. "Plight" is an unfortunate, difficult, or precarious situation (according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Could that mean, then, that an "all-plight" is when everything has gone wrong? I would sure say so. So let's read it back in plain English from the last two lines in the stanza: "Before the [destruction], the shattered, broken, [spread] pieces formed a shape." Nice! Okay, moving on...

The second stanza:

Droplets scattered freely by,

Glistened in a splatter.

First t'was naught, then seconds fly

To join the fatal matter.

"Droplets scattered freely by..." --okay, this one is all common knowledge, droplets = small bits of water. "Glistened in a splatter..." Right, right, okay, more glistening and gleaming but in a "splatter" this time, meaning the liquid clearly spilled in a abnormal way. We're definitely gathering clues here with "all-plight" and "splatter." Clearly this wasn't supposed to happen.

"First t'was naught, then seconds fly" (another line without punctuation), but what does it mean? Well, we know that "naught" means "not-existent" or "not at all," so it's definitely referring to the droplets and imply that they didn't use to be there. "Then seconds fly to join the fatal matter." Okay, we're on to something here, if "seconds" signify time and were are told that in just a small amount of time, the droplets joined the "tattered segments," then we know that they both correspond in some way. Remember this!

Third Stanza:

Chaos littered in a heap,

And at its focal, laying:

A petalled thing, wont to weep;

Lost solitude for praying.

Growing up, did you ever hear your mother call your dirty clothes pile a heap of chaos? How about the fact that it littered your room? Well, good thing we know these words from experience then, I can skip the first line as long as you know that it is again referring to the shattered pieces and water droplets everywhere....... anybody guess what it was at this point while reading it?

"And at its focal laying:" First off, a colon is highlighting the next line in subtext, so pay close attention to what the word "laying" is linking itself to. Next, think of a "focal point," what does it mean? "Center of attention" right? So that helps us know that "the focal" is representing "the center" and we are told that something is laying... let's see what it is, shall we?

"A petalled thing," what do you know that has petals? (A poet rarely reveals a subject with jarring boldness. They will build up to it, so if they are writing about a dragon, most authors will say something like: "The scaley beast" or "winged flamethrower" or something like that). "...wont to weep..." this is not the same word as "want," if you weren't sure. "Wont" means that the subject is "inclined" or "destined for;" Which, in this context, reveals that the flower is naturally inclined to weep in this moment, especially because it has lost it's "solitude for praying." A "solitude" is a safe place, and where do flowers feel safe? Where do they feel like they can "pray" (be themselves)? What, that once had shape, could shatter to pieces and spill out water, leaving a "petalled thing" exposed? Ah ha! Now you are catching on!

Fourth Stanza: (Bear with me please!)

The blossom, in its flawless state, (The flower, being perfect,)

Could hear the ugly cluster (Could hear the ugly mess)

Murmur on, with green-eyed prate, (Complain about, with jealousy,)

Its beauty and its luster. (The flower's beauty and glow)

I summarized this one for you pretty plainly. Does this mean that the pieces and droplets are talking to the flower? In this poem, absolutely. And what are they saying? Rude jealous things. Why? Well, isn't the flower described as perfect--meaning, unbroken? I would be jealous too if I were this "ugly cluster."

Okay, the fifth stanza is a doozie:

And in the midst of harried blows,

From splintered bits array,

The culprit stooped and snatched the rose,

And swept the vase away.

Okay so we know this much, the line introduces that we are now in the middle (or "midst") of something: "harried blows," to be exact. You may need a little help from google on this one unless you somehow already know that "harried" is an adverb meaning: "harassing, or straining demands." But who are these "harried blows" coming from? "From the splintered bits array..." --Ah, our least-favorite heap of chaos...

But in the midst of this, like it first states, "the culprit, stooped..." What/who is a culprit? One who does something wrong right? Perhaps one who causes an "all-plight" or a "fatal matter?" Mmmmmmm, it's coming together! This person who caused all this "stoops" (leans over) and "snatched the rose..." --picked that flower up (but with emotion because "snatch" is different then "scooped" or "plucked" or any of those softer-tone words).

"And swept the vase away." OHHHH! It' s officially been revealed. The "tattered segments" and "splattered droplets" were from a vase that was obviously knocked over. But wow, he really did just get the rose out of there and sweep the mess away... almost as if they knew the difference in values between the fallen objects. Oh we are so close! What's the theme here? (Always be thinking about that)

Maybe the sixth stanza will tell us:

The stem and bloom had found relief (the flower was okay now)

Within the sewer's hands, (within the [planter's] hands)

And with it, grew a new belief: (and with that relief, a new thought had formed)

Heed not their vain demands. (let's talk about this one...)

"Heed not their vain demands..." --what shouldn't the flower be heeding? "Their vain demands." Whose? You know it by now, of course you do. But ask yourself this: what are their "vain demands?" Maybe it would help to think about what jealous beings do to perfect beings sometimes. They tear them down like the crabs-in-a-bucket analogy. (look it up)

Okay bring us home stanza seven:

Don't ponder on a lowly call,

To falter from your token;

And just because you sprout in-tall,

Don't break your never broken.

Want to know a little secret? The most important lines in almost ever poem is the set at the end. Almost always, in the last stanza, the theme is reinstated for clarity and packed punch. This poem is not an exception. What is it trying to tell us? "Don't ponder on a lowly call, to falter from your token." If you, symbolically, represent the flower, "your token" would be your beauty and your resilience to "fatal matters." Here, it is directly saying not to falter from that.

"And just because you sprout in-tall," (just because you are valued, chosen, and special) "Don't break your never broken." NEVER, as it states, should you allow yourself to break and weaken because other's tell you to out of jealousy. Stand tall and be who you are destined to be.

Thank you for listening to me dissect this poem with you. You're already a natural so you probably didn't even need it to be spelled out for you but it was fun nonetheless! I hope you enjoyed "Blossom" and look forward to reading loads more content this summer.

Cale's back, tell your friends!

And the why is the title the title? I'll leave that up to your interpretation! :)

-Cale Montoya (06/21/24)