Jeanne Marie Beaumont is an American poet who lives in New York City. She has published a total of three books of poetry. Her works have been referenced in several anthologies. She wrote "Rorschach" in New York in 1997.
Snow patches along the creek bank.
Too simple. Wings melting there.
The tops of two maples
beside the window of my childhood bedroom.
Stain on a linen napkin left by lip-
stick—why it's called that. Go on.
A man's tattered bow tie
put through the wash cycle—by accident.
A dress, haunted by the child who wore it,
standing by itself in the center of a room.
A face. Whose? A woman's face, lathered up
with soap except around the eyes.
A fluke. A flute? A fluke
with two eyes on one side of its head.
The cigarette ground into the floor
by Bette Davis in All About Eve.
Next. A house that can't be seen
from the road—no, what hides it.
Graffiti of the nearsighted
painted by mouth.
And if I say "tree"?
I'd say—death by wood.
Cabinet? Casket.
Tell me again.
A map. A map of the island
where I asked to be born.
This poem is inherently meaningful beyond the literal comprehension of its content. A Rorschach test is in and of itself an examination of subtleties presented by knee-jerk reactions, each response a metaphor. Although there is no way to know what is meant by each of the speaker’s lines, we can begin to infer some things right away. We can deduce that the person speaking in italics is the psychologist who is talking with the narrator based on her responses to the narrator. In this session the narrator is responding to a series of pictures. We do not get the actual pictures, only what the narrator sees in them. From each of these short metaphorical responses we can guess at a few things about the narrator. Throughout the poem we get images of useless and seemingly ugly items: a stained napkin, a ruined tie, a fluke, a ground up cigarette, graffiti painted by mouth by near sighted people. This might be a reflection of the narrator’s disdain for this counseling session, writing it off as useless. It could also relate to all the childhood imagery: her childhood bedroom, a child’s dress hanging empty, and a mention of wanting to be born in a particular place. With this in mind, the narrator may be showing her discontent with her childhood, something that she cannot bring herself to say outright but through the Rorschach test she is able to express her true feelings. In this different interpretation of this poem, the test is a useful tool and is not written off by the narrator. That is where metaphor is beautiful; poetry is not the same to every person. Every reader gets a different interpretation, and not one of them is wrong.
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