"Miles Lost In Transit" 1974: poetry by Michael F. Nyiri

Introduction:

The poet begins by elaborating about separation - how deeply it affects the people who experience it - man losing wife through divorce or death, father or mother leaving children. How does separation affect each individual involved? The mind has to adapt to new standards because of the separation. The mind yearns to succumb to visions of the past, "nostalgic" remembrances which do nothing of a positive nature, but still reinforce the feeling of "good" in the world. In circumstances surrounding the poet, separation of his "life" in isolation from his "life" in family, lead to a discussion of what is good or bad in his mind concerning the separation. In a more intrusive movement of the poem, the poet discusses the separation of mind from reality, as in the "nostalgic" remembrances mentioned earlier. The mind, "in an idle state" is destined to be salvation for the poet, but his salvation is continually interrupted by reality, which, in retrospect, reverts back to musings on separation in a real aspect. Since the salvation is not, in a real sense, a boon to the poet, he muses upon death, and discusses, in a Shellyesque monologue, how it could not be the end of all dreams. This thought provokes an intense discussion of religion, in which the poet feels he is a pawn bandied about by the various "God forces" on the planet. While searching for a new salvation through the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the poet is confronted with more questions than he has previously asked. He does not know......

(We will notice that the last sentence in this piece is unfinished. This is the perfect end. The poet will never know yet will keep trying. Knowledge is the ultimate answer to all, yet knowledge is never attained. Harsh words, yes, but only the truth. MFN, in another moment of introspection. 7-30-78)

I
Escaping unheralded into the realm
Of lying emotions and forgotten realities
Seething with passion as if reborn:
Yet noticing nothing new
And experiencing nothing exciting

While transposing anxieties into
Hopeful dreams - 
While yearning for that new meaning
Of Life - 
While crossing the barrriers of
Inescapable truths - 
One searches for words to
Convey his meaning.

Caught up - insoluble, in the world
Of Humanized Paper-Dolls
Reciting piano-rolled wisdoms
And humming old tunes...
Exercising individuality when
Other halves are never together 
And razorblades and fast cars
Glint noiselessly in the sun.
Trying like hell to proclaim
Freedom while escaping
Platonic relationships which
Never felt of emotion.

Hating to turn back, 
And yet wishing that home
Were around the corner again.

II
The nonrhyming heptameters
Proclaiming true freedom
From questioning and drudgery,
For these am I aiming,
Yet consistently I find that
These freedoms are yet facades
For truly repressed minds - 
Who yearn, like I, but who
Never fulfull,
Except in idle dreams.

And idleness storming the
Nebula of our existence -
Manufacturing words out of
Unintelligible monlsyllabic utterings
And tearing the mind open
With wind reaping cold, icy
Factions of thought -
I die each time it happens -
And I find my escapes
Inevitably turn back to 
The harshness of truth.

III
The questions which, unheeded,
Return one by one,
Then rush, in a cavalcade
Through my very being - 
These will be active
Even as the world will be 
passive.

And they will turn the most
Concise poem into a torrent
Of words.

When a visage can shine through
The darkness of the mind
Aided by the myriads of thoughts
Which pierce the head into 
Oblivion,
	I can remember
	And in these thoughts relax
	Until such time as a 
	Thought
	Or a motion
Or a deed of a word or a noise
Snaps me into reality again.

Then the visages are faded blurs
And all passages of escape
are closed.

Lying emotions, which reconcile
But for an instant...
Forgotten realities which change
The face of life only in the mind
One can only hope to be reborn
And awaken into a world of
True Feeling.

IV
But the truth of the situation
And the outweighing of the reason
Will dictate nothing new

And nothing exciting was
Experienced
At all.