1. Go back to the grain yellow hills where the broken speak of elegance
2. Walk up to the canvas door, the short bed stretched against the clouds
3. Beneath the earth, an ant writes with the grace of a governor
4. Blow, blow Red Tail Hawk, your hidden sleeve—your desert secrets
5. You are there, almost, without a name, without a body, go now
6. I said five, said five like a guitar says six.
When I read Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem, “Five Directions to my House”, I did so without acknowledging the numbers at the beginning of each line. It didn’t dawn on me to read them as words (“one, two, three” etc.), because the title indicated that the poem was a list. I treated the numbers as if they were invisibly organizing a chronological list, and nothing more. After reading the poem once, I noticed that there were six lines as opposed to the number five indicated in the title. On the second reading, I focused on why there was a sixth line, and what I thought it meant. I thought about the amount of strings on a standard guitar. I wondered if the words “I said five, said five”on line six, was maybe in reference to a bass guitar and its amount of strings, and “like a guitar says six,” was perhaps alluding to an acoustic guitar, because it has six strings.
When a poem is read aloud, the poet has the power to present it the way they intended. I’ve posted a link below of Herrera performing his piece as well as an admittedly underwhelming explanation of the poem. I do not believe in explaining a creative piece because it puts it in jeopardy of losing its credibility.
Five directions to my house: http://youtu.be/8UPjEcaCG5E
The Junction Journal 