All night long the hockey pictures
gaze down at you
sleeping in your tracksuit.
Belligerent goalies are your ideal.
Threats of being traded
cuts and wounds
– all this pleases you.
0 my god! you say at breakfast
reading the sports page over the Alpen
as another player breaks his ankle
or assaults the coach.
When I thought of daughters
I wasn’t expecting this
but I like this more.
I like all your faults
even your purple moods
when you retreat from everyone
to sit in bed under a quilt.
And when I say ‘like’
I mean of course ‘love’
but that embarrasses you.
You who feel superior to black and white movies
(coaxed for hours to see Casablanca)
though you were moved
by Creature from the Black Lagoon.
One day I’ll come swimming
beside your ship or someone will
and if you hear the siren
listen to it. For if you close your ears
only nothing happens. You will never change.
I don’t care if you risk
your life to angry goalies
creatures with webbed feet.
You can enter their caves and castles
their glass laboratories. Just
don’t be fooled by anyone but yourself.
This is the first lecture I’ve given you.
You’re ‘sweet sixteen’ you said.
I’d rather be your closest friend
than your father. I’m not good at advice
you know that, but ride
the ceremonies
until they grow dark.
Sometimes you are so busy
discovering your friends
I ache with a loss
— but that is greed.
And sometimes I’ve gone
into my purple world
and lost you.
One afternoon I stepped
into your room. You were sitting
at the desk where I now write this.
Forsythia outside the window
and sun spilled over you
like a thick yellow miracle
as if another planet
was coaxing you out of the house
— all those possible worlds! –
and you, meanwhile, busy with mathematics.
I cannot look at forsythia now
without loss, or joy for you.
You step delicately
into the wild world
and your real prize will be
the frantic search.
Want everything. If you break
break going out not in.
How you live your life I don’t care
but I’ll sell my arms for you,
hold your secrets for ever.
If I speak of death
which you fear now, greatly,
it is without answers,
except that each
one we know is
in our blood.
Don’t recall graves.
Memory is permanent.
Remember the afternoon’s
yellow suburban annunciation.
Your goalie
in his frightening mask
dreams perhaps
of gentleness.
Source: https://www.lyrikline.org/en/poems/sad-daughter-6573
Ondaatje’s Purple World: Reality is Crucial
Reality is crucial. Not everything in life turns out the way we expect, described as a chaotic world in Ondaatje’s words; thus, taking things into consideration from different perspectives, accepting it willingly, and following with its natural trend must be the best result to surmount the situation. In the poem “To a Sad Daughter”, Michael Ondaatje indirectly portrays the main theme as a connection between the reality and the extent of how the world is fulfilled with ambiguity narrated together with a parent and daughter relationship. The world is full of uncertainty. Even the speaker’s daughter does not turn out to be what he wanted, reflected through her actions of being a hoiden; more, a girl who admires to be a “Belligerent [goalie].” Not limited to his daughter, the speaker describes himself as a father, a protector and even a friend on various occasions; he wants to hold on to his daughter “forever” but later came to a realization that the most effective method to achieve this is by opening the pathway and making “[her] step delicately/ Into the wild world”. In addition, Ondaatje uses a variety of words such as“purple world”, “possible world”, and “wild world” to effectively describe his perception of the world. While “purple” and “wild” both indicate the world as a harsh and hostile environment, the text “possible” implies a sense of hope in general. According to the description, an obvious contradiction appears within the use of the three words; nevertheless, they are all true and reasonable as the world is composed of all different kinds of components, or referred to as an ambiguous world.
Life is just like a journey; you may gain developments or encounter setbacks at any time. Within it, a correct guidebook would sustain you on the correct pathway, just similar to a journey whereas parents would support you towards success. In usual scenarios, parents would provide an imperceptible influence on their child reflected both in the poem and in real life, this includes but not limited to encouragement, criticism, and complement. I can recall a moment when I was afraid of competing with others in a competition, even to the extent of planning to flee away from my parents. However, I was able to overcome the fear within my heart after my parents encouraged me by saying, “it is better to try something and fail rather than not try at all.” The situation that I was in got directly connected to the poem when the father tried to declare his attitude towards overcoming setbacks by mentioning that “If you break/ Break going out not in.” I’m pleasured and felicitated to reassuringly leave my “back” to my parents because they provide a stable and secure guard for me as long as I seek help, I truly see this opportunity as a priceless “gift”. When the speaker also wills to “sell [his] arms for [his daughter],/ Hold [her daughter’s] secrets forever,” I felt strongly connected to the world and believed the truth that most parents are superheroes to their kids.
About Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje CC FRSL (born 12 September 1943), is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian poet, fiction writer, essayist, novelist, editor, and filmmaker. He is the recipient of multiple literary awards such as the Governor General’s Award, the Giller Prize, the Booker Prize, and the Prix Médicis étranger. Ondaatje is also an Officer of the Order of Canada, recognizing him as one of Canada’s most renowned living authors.
Ondaatje’s literary career began with his poetry in 1967, publishing The Dainty Monsters, and then in 1970 the critically acclaimed The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. However, he is more recently recognized for his nationally and internationally successful novel The English Patient (1992), which was adapted into a film in 1996. In 2018, Ondaatje won the Golden Man Booker Prize for The English Patient.
In addition to his literary writing, Ondaatje has been an important force in “fostering new Canadian writing” with two decades commitment to Coach House Press (around 1970–90), and his editorial credits on Canadian literary projects like the journal Brick, and the Long Poem Anthology (1979), among others.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ondaatje
