Analysis of "A fourteen-line poem on Adoration" by Julie Carr

 Poem found here:  "A fourteen-line poem on Adoration" by Julie Carr

In my notes, I reminded myself to remember that this is a definition poem.  The poem defines "Adoration" in different ways kind of like Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.  This poem also reminded me of a sonnet because of the fourteen lines, and how the idea of adoration would fit well in a sonnet.  But the first line is pretty blunt, "1. It does not take much."  

A direct approach based on implication.  The line implies adoration doesn't take much -- which is a good lead into to the next line, "2. Half an hour here, half an hour there."  What time it takes to adore and what is adored, "3. It's not a 'presence' I adore" not a manifestation, rather the actual.

"4. The erotically swollen moon" is a direct image.  I feel the language is on the nose for a reason to heavy handedly imply something physical (swollen moon -- pregnant, perhaps).  Direct image, implied. 

"5. Let me go, friends, companions" is a shift of tone.  Seems like a command from someone held back.  This seems like a response from having someone's adoration be held back.  From here it feels that each numbered line has nothing to do with the last.  But for me, the first four lines connect well, like how definitions do sometimes.

"6. The soldier watches his kid in a play".  A solid image of adoration and I think the most equal level.  As a reader I can connect the definition with the image.

"7. He seems nothing less or more than 'foreigner'". This one is a reach for a definition, but next to the line which defines it -- there's contracting denotations.

"8. Grass. Dirt"  Adoration on the symbiotic level.  Maybe symbolic level, but I don't think the poem operates on sitting on definition or images for too long.

"9. The bottle broke and all the women gathered shards". Adoration with an unknown implied motive.  All the women must be gathering the shards due to adoration -- an implied motive with a lack of reasoning.  This feels like a definition based on interpretation.

"10.  The effect was of inflation."  The construction of the sentence doesn't make sense to me.  Does this mean that the effect was the effect of inflation?  Or is it the periphery of inflation made was the effect?  How does this relate to adoration?  I'm not sure.  

"11. There was only one alive moment in the day." We come back to parallel definitions.  The only alive moment is adored, cherished.

"12. Either I loved myself or I loved you".  Again a parallel with the idea of love.  The emotional pull of the language to me is that it's "or" not "and."  A single sided adoration.

"13.  Just like a mother to say that".  This line reminds me of, "for sale, baby shoes, never worn."  Adoration based on what it "should" relate to -- children.  I think the simile throws me off.  The simile layers the definition.  On the first level, "Adoration means 'just like a mother to say that." Then the definition adds another layer by adding the maternal role as knowing and defining adoration as such.

"14. 'Do you become very much?' she wrote"  Adoration defined by a rhetorical question.  What is the worth of adoration?  Do you become very much from it?  I also think ending with a defined gender writing this could refer to looking through the lens of the "she" in the definition.

Or maybe adoration is a feminine term in different lenses.