Intimacy as Connection

from The Crack in Everything by Alicia Suskin Ostriker

"The Nature of Beauty"

I can only say, there we have been; but I cannot say where.
-T. S. Eliot

As sometimes whiteness forms in a clear sky
To represent the breezy, temporary
Nature of beauty,
Early in semester they started it.
Lisa read in her rich New Jersey accent,
Which mixes turnpike asphalt with fast food,
A sexy poem that mentioned "the place
Where lovers go to when their eyes are closed
And their lips smiling."  Other students grinned,
Thinking perhaps of the backseats of Hondas.
Instead of explaining "place" as a figure of speech,
The teacher wanted them to crystallize
Around it as around the seed of a cloud.
You all understand that? You understand?
The place we go to?  Where we've been?  They got it.

All semester they brought it back
A piece at a time, like the limbs of Osiris.
Mostly from sex, for they were all American
Nineteen to twenty-one year olds
Without a lot of complicated notions.
But Doug got it from the Jersey shore,
Foam stroking his shins, his need
Leaping in fish form.  Robin
One time from dancing
With a woman she didn't
Have sex with, once from her grandmother
Doing the crossword puzzle in pen.
Kindly David from a monstrous orange bus
Whose driver amazed him by kindliness
To passengers who were poor and demented.
Dylan from a Baptist church when song
Blent him into its congregation, sucked him
Into God, for a sanctified quarter hour,
"There's no separation at that height,"
Before it dropped him like Leda back to earth
And the perplexity of being white.

The vapor of the word collects,
Becomes cloud, pours itself out,
Almost before you think: the small
Rain down can rain.
A brief raid on the inarticulate
Is what we get, and in retreat we cannot
Tell where we've really been, much less remain.



"The Nature of Beauty" is not a poem about sex.  Yes, its mentioned and insinuated a few times.  No, that's not the overarching theme nor does it have anything to do with the message of this poem.  Get your mind out of the gutter!   Instead, Ostriker writes about intimacy and how a relationship does not have to be romantically or sexually charged to bring two people together, even for a brief moment.

Ostriker begins many of the poems in The Crack in Everything with a quote; some have more clear connections to the following poem than others.  This quote from T. S. Eliot is one that does fit well with the poem.  The "place" (line 9) in the student's poem is the subject of the quote, which ties nicely into the ambiguity of the physical and metaphysical "there" (line 1), the same state of being as that in the student's poem. From this setting of frame comes a familiar situation.  The set-up of students reading aloud poetry to the class is not uncommon, and the "New Jersey accent" (line 7) evokes images of "turnpike asphalt and fast food" (line 8).  This student introduces a "place" that "lovers" (line 9) receed to when they wish to be intimate.  But not all intimacy is innately sexual, as outlined in the third stanza, with examples of when students felt close to another human.  Whether to a grandmother while "doing the crossword puzzle in pen" (line 28), or to a nice bus driver who treated people who were "poor and demented" (line 31), these other students could relate to a feeling on platonic intimacy.  Ostriker uses a broader sense of the word "lover" to mean a fellow companion; a person close to one's heart at the moment or for life.

Something that continues throughout the poem is the idea of a cloud.  First, the cloud forms in the sky as a kind of "whiteness" (line 3), symbolizing the changing weather and nature's constant movement.  The scene described in the first few lines of Ostriker's is one of peaceful tranquility on the verge of something with more motion.  The clouds represent change, as they are not yet fully formed- only on the precipice of a new sequence of events.  Then comes the idea of a lovers' place, which the students "crystallize around it as around the seed of a cloud" (line 14).  This also evokes an image of collecting, congealing into a new form of being.  Rather than a physical rain cloud, now a cloud represents a similarity of thinking.  If all the students have the same rough idea of a lovers' place, then their perceptions can connect into something of a loose web, or cloud, of thought.  Finally, we land on a cloud of the "place".  Such an ambiguous word now personifies a physical cloud in its many stages- gathering, pouring, and vanishing.  During a relationship, one creates a "cloud" of a place, "pours" emotional strength into the other, and then "rains" heavily on the notion.  We all participate in this cycle with anyone we feel a close connection to, or a reverence towards.

I personally enjoy how raw this poem is, and how brazenly it discusses such a weighted topic.  Many people would be afraid of adressing a topic so close to sex, but not quite; however, Ostriker tackles the challenge with ease.  In an interview, Ostriker was very adamant that she writes about all aspects of life, and I believe that is evident in this poem.  She is set in her argument that platonic relationships can be just as satisfying, able to bring one to his/her/their loving place, as any more charged relationship.  Ostriker also does not shy away from strong, evocative language, which is a quality I greatly admire.