"Beginning Again" by Fraz Wright

  

Beginning Again

“If I could stop talking, completely

cease talking for a year, I might begin

to get well,” he muttered.

Off alone again performing

brain surgery on himself

in a small badly lit

room with no mirror. A room

whose floor ceilings and walls

are all mirrors, what a mess

oh my God—

And still

it stands,

the question

not how begin

again, but rather

Why?

So we sit there

together

the mountain

and me, Li Po

said, until only the mountain

remains.

                        -Franz Wright

My first thought about this poem was that it reminds me of Tibetan monks living in silence, hoping to reach enlightenment. I really like the last stanza because it provides picturesque imagery of sitting on top of a mountain, clouds hanging low in the sky, and hearing the beautiful calm of silence. It reminds me of the movie The Bucket List about two men diagnosed with terminal cancer and go on an adventure around the world and do things they never thought they would. I think that final scenes of this movie sum up the poem, “Beginning Again.”



Picture of the summit of Everest - Google Images



The toughest part of the poem for me to get through and understand was in the first stanza when it talks about the room with no mirrors but the ceiling, floor, and walls were all mirrors because it’s a contradiction. As I read and re-read this part of the poem again, one possible explanation could be that the speaker is so focused on trying to do one thing – brain surgery on himself – that the speaker isn’t fully aware his surroundings and that mirrors are all around him, the speaker just has to see them. I also think that the brain surgery is a more a thought of looking inside your own thoughts and trying to make clarity of them.

I feel as though I can relate to this poem as a way to seek solitude because I am an introvert, so when life gets stressful or crazy, I like to be alone with my thoughts to help me calm down and think rationally.