Explication of Etheridge Knights' "Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane"

Explication of Poem -
Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane -Etheridge Knight
This poem is a narrative tale about the members of a prison waiting to find out how the lobotomy of the toughest prisoner, “Hard Rock” has gone, and subsequently about how the lobotomy causes Hard Rock to lose his hero status in the emotional reaction of despair the other prisoners exhibit. The speaker is another prisoner, talking for the group of other prisoners who were more physically unable and/or less courageous then “Hard Rock”. He is talking as if he is telling a story to someone unfamiliar with the prison system/an outsider to the situation. The speaker has a mix of nostalgia and despair in his voice and his attitude toward the poems subject/Hard Rock is one of pity--both for himself and the other prisoners. The voice is somewhat reliable for his own feelings but the other prisoners may not share his opinion on the lobotomy, though the events seem straight forward if the emotions aren’t. The whole last paragraph of the poem reaffirms this idea. The freestyle of the poem allows a conforming of the form to whatever is necessary for the momentary emotion of each line. The poem develops in a way where the audience is more in on whats going to happen then the people within the story are made to have, a successful recreating of an event without giving oneself underserved credit of more knowledge then one actually had when the events were occurring. It moves from curiosity/wonderment at whether they really could break such a tough dude with one procedure or if they were bluffing and maybe there wasn’t anything that bad that could happen if they pushed as far as Hard Rock--to despair at finding out there was a way to steal the life out someone too dangerous or aggressive or a problem or loud or the slightest bit annoying, and to crushedness from realizing their dreams are hopeless.
There are about 42 sentences in the poem, mainly complicated, verb-nouns seem normal, some enjambement, some end stopped lines, title briefly explains situation going on
There is definitely colloquial prison language in the poem, know the meanings of all of them, no allusions I see, mood/attitude associated=fear of lobotomy/wonder at the possible even more inhumane uses lobotomy can be put to.. The imagery of how tough Hard Rock was before the lobotomy to how long it took him to remember his name/his passivity afterwards largely contributed to the sound of the poem.
Not too much rhyming/irregular occurrence, the effect of this as well as the tonal effect of the rhythm here adds to the authentic feeling,
The poem creates a contemplative mood and is achieved by listing surface events that have emotions behind them.

Writers Journal 1/21

Much madness is divinest sense
To a discerning eye;
Much sense the starkest madness.
'Tis the majority
In this, as all, prevails.
Assent, and you are sane;
Demur, -- you're straightway dangerous,
And handled with a chain.
-Emily Dickenson

The majority is who determines who is sane and who is not, and oftentimes this has been done by assessing the degree in which one assimilates themselves to cultural norms/mainstream attitudes of the day. The unstated problem/logical conclusion of this poem is that by condescendenly excluding voices of 'madness' from being heard we are denying possibility of acquiring the wisdom those voices may hold. These are probably overused/cliche, but they work: How mad was the guy who first said the earth was round? or the sun was at the universe's center?


Possibilities can only exist if there is some chance for them to become actualities--otherwise they 'aren't possible' and should be stored away in the category of 'idea' or at most 'fantasy'. While it is easy to fall into paranoia about the excessive transformation of irresponsible, different or 'mad' fantasies into reality we forget that it is good to be just as wary about shutting out divinest sense its easier to label as 'madness'.

That being said, possibilities can be endless--people can create new meaning for things, and there are certain things beyond average sense/logic that can come in as madness (ie-creativity, passion, divine experience) that really come from the realm of empirically unverifiable concepts that people have to use another kind of sense to explore the possibilities of the focus's actual existence.

To think that life ever stops bringing new lessons is limiting. What is the goal but to reach the limitless by use of any of the limited means we have available to use? Tasting the limitless can be invigorating or depressing, sometimes both--one feels (universal) Love and Eternity, and then the limited grabs one back to remind one that in this lifetime, on this plane, we are still trapped in our bodies, still on the physical plane--for a reason, presumably to some anyway--and by refusing to attach oneself from both the world's pleasures and also from too far retracting from the world one can avoid both extremes-one of mistakenly thinking material/pleasure-giving things make one happier & therefore excluding possibility that there can be something beyond the external that could be beneficial to ones development as a person and the other of mistakenly feeling superior because of attachment to austerities/formed never-re-questioned habits & therefore excluding possibilities of keeping in touch with this gift/curse of imperfect humanity that causes us to embrace unusual (to the participant) interest or experiences despite the fact that at times it may go against average logic, indeed we reshape logic over time to be more sympathetic to both sides of arguments and get free of preconcieved conception in favor of redefined or newly created ideas, and maybe one day we'll go back beyond strictly categorized words we want to have meaning and transform the world into something closer to being, just living.

And, back to Emily Dickinson, who lived somewhat more removed from the world, and my wondering if she ever considered, upon writing this the consequences if people hadn't over the years at least in some number, at some points, recognized the divinest sense in madness on a grander scale, instead putting 'dangerous' people on a chain, as her poem states (and the consequences of the witch-idea hunts/claims of heresy there have been...)

Writers Journal 1/14

For some, the night can never be dark enough.
Past sins and good deeds alike are evenly ironed over with the deepest part of the shadow and there is no need in the dark to find whats hiding, no need to recreate it in a more presentable way, no worries of compromising the integrity of the dark nor having to successfully scratch through the lit surface to the depth behind it. One can just sit there, breathing in the strong feeling that the blankets of blackness invokes, letting oneself be soothed by the feeling of being enveloped in darkness's solace--that place where peace, tranquility, and evenness meet, the place where there is no like or dislike just pure quiet energy that burbles under calm surfaces ready to change whatever it touches. It can serve as a hiding spot, the place where no one can see tears that fall or hearts that bleed, but it also can be a sanctuary for one to eliminate the distractions of the world of beings and allow focus to be brought on being, both submission to divine being (note, not 'a divine being'), the suffering of other beings, and the ability for one being to learn to just be, to enjoy all the world has to offer without despairing over or neglecting the first two concerns.
The night's blank slate and dark absolution from judgment offers creativity opportunity to flourish unhinged, for fiction authors and poets to either depart from, enhance, and/or change the perception of physical truths in this world so they appear in ways that are extra fraught with double meanings, egotistical claims at acquired knowledge diminished by a less narcissistic attempt to subtly hint at that which cannot completely be recreated or replaced by the words people attempt to pin onto them but can at best be shown through creative, figurative, metaphors and less agressive/obtrusive (or sometimes more...) rhymes and statements.

Writers Journal 1/12

Zombies, Beatles and Temptations crowd around, causing the floor to pulse, and small and strong limbs to shake and swirl--once, again, three times round,
happy to imitate the ignored circular path of clock hands that like to think they matter.
On and on it goes, no concern for their movement along the usual circular path at the usual snails pace--
There is no place for time in this land of energy, and lights, the cushion is not there for time to crash down during the slow-pulsed intervals-- its there to temper and add to the significance of the emotional movement of people's motion, melody, laughter, bright colorful shines illuminating atmospherically dimmed room which are all swirling together.
Mother and daughter dance around the joyful sound of laughter; it rings out, reaching far enough corners to echo back over a lifetime.