Above is a word cloud created from one of my favorite Marge Piercy poems. The poem's focus is low and behold... LOVE: the largest word in the cloud. Her piece talks of the conscious effort, successes and failures necessary for love. Until creating the cloud, I did not realize the amount of physical descriptions she uses "knives" "sharp" "hunger" "wet" "hot" to describe such an internal experience.
It's ironic that the poem speaks to the struggles of love, yet "open" is one of the largest words. I'd like to imagine it is chosen as such-- because it remains her biggest obstacle.
The web produced primarily actions or objects-- things that would remind the lover of how she felt, but still no means to express it or explanation for her feelings.
Upon reaching the end of the poem, I am always left with sympathy for the lover's inability to convey her feelings, and through use of the cloud I realized that the poem only speaks of her struggle with love, not why she loves. Maybe that's why her relationship is so uncertain, it is based largely upon emotion and not fact or experience.
