I imagine that it is not coincidence that the first poem I would come across would be “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” and that no one else in class has written on it. I believe I have heard the title before, but I have not ever read the poem until now, and oddly enough I am sitting in a graveyard with a blanket laid out behind a couple that passed away (one in 1965 and the other in 1966). Possibly they were Lovers because one does not usually stay long on the earth behind the other. Is that the irony? That I would be sitting at a Grave when reading the poem. It brings it even more to life with all the reminders of death around. Though this life has brought to my Awareness, death is not what we think it is, it cannot be thought, and that is why there is no “real” explanation for it. No need to run towards it or away from it. Dylan Thomas has a very eloquent way of speaking of the Light. Though most of this life has been used in pointing to it for one to See/Know while they are alive, he is using it as what is drawn away from in death. He seems to be seeing it this way because it is his father that is leaving, and he does not want him to go. What has been revealed here, is that Birth, Life, and Death are in the Light, there is no outside of the Light. It has been said that when Ramana Maharishi was dying, and his loved ones’ were saying, “don’t leave us” he said; “where would I go.” He was/is already aware of the Light which everything is In, not as outside of himself, but as his Self, who He Is. One does not have to wait for death to know this, all one need do is begin to put the attention, not on the thoughts, but on what thoughts appear In. Dylan Thomas gives a very good imagery of the Light. So if you can imagine it (though it is beyond imagination) then you can begin to start to place the attention on what you imagine, until the Real appears. This is the gift of poetry, that we do not have to be so clear or literal, that it can be used to open up the mind to greater Seeing. What I felt/feel from his poem is Love. His love for life, people, his Father and the Light of the world and his fear of what he seems to believe death is. |