As an Open Form poem, Paul Blackburn takes “Brooklyn Narcissus” to the extreme, jumping from one thought to the next and with utterances that were not very articulate. There were some things I liked though. One was when he said “My trouble. Is.” Even though this bold statement felt like it was just stuck in, it was direct and funny. In fact, it may have even obviated most of the rest of the poem. It is only because Blackburn is troubled that the scenery outside of his window seems so haunting, but compelling. Blackburn would rather look outside than inward. With this interpretation, the last two lines make sense. “We enter the tunnel / The dirty windows give me back my face.” Once inside the tunnel, Blackburn’s source of distraction – the window – only reminds him that he must look at his own face rather than that of the outside world. Once he resolves his own problem perhaps there won’t be screaming, struggling Christmas trees any more. He would see the lights as things that are indeed lovely and wouldn’t be prepared to exchange his flesh (i.e. switch places with) a lover. He would be able to love in his own skin and would no longer think of death.
I think it is interesting that Blackburn brings up the bridge several times. As he outrightly says in the poem, the bridge may symbolize “a bridge between we state one life and the next.” Blackburn doesn’t seem to finish this thought, but nonetheless the bridge must symbolize hope. How ominous is it then that the poem ends with him entering, not a bridge, but a tunnel?
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