For the Sake of Sounding

I'm glad you posted this - I'd seen it previously as the intro to your section of the same name and thought it was a wonderful poem.  In fact, it's the first of yours I'd read.  As far as "this raging skin" goes, sometimes "this" just adds a detachment that seems applicable to the mood of the poem.  I like it and wouldn't have even commented if Stephen hadn't brought it up.  To each their own.  If you were to expand your own thoughts in this forum, I'm sure it would be interesting.  No doubt.  I love to read poets' thoughts on their own work.  Probably what I like best about this poem is that there seems to be a very personal depth beneath the metaphor, and the feeling of rising out of those entanglements, shedding the translations, is very palpable.  I can't quite put my finger on it, but it affects me deeply.  My own remembrances perhaps.  But that's what a good poem does - it taps the universal and expresses it in a wordless way that resonates through whomever it touches.  I can't speak for everyone, but this poem touches me at a very wordless level and I enjoy reading it.