Analysis of "Wildpeace" by Yehuda Amichai

 Poem Found Here: "Wildpeace" by Yehuda Amichai

This is a definition poem.  What is Wildpeace?  But this poem starts a definition with negative reasoning, "Not the peace of a cease-fire, / not even the vision of the wolf and the lamb,"  I take this as defining the compound of "wild" here as a separate entity of peace -- creating a a wry oxymoronic tone to the poem and still keeping the gravity of the situation.  For example, a lack of a cease-fire or a stop, or not even a single image of stopping this discordance.

And when the poem clarifies what it is not, the next lines of the poem clarify what it is, "but rather / as in the heart when the excitement is over / and you can talk about a great weariness."  The respite.  The respite of the adrenaline dying down from the stress of the situation to the sinking realization thank comes from some trauma or reoccurrence of trauma happening.

"I know that I know how to kill,"  The repetition in this line echoes the negation reasoning above but in, like the title, in an ironic sense.  The defining of what "Wildpeace" is as a concept, but when it comes to the actual speaker it's by affirming knowledge like an adult. "that makes me an adult."

Then comes a surreal image of, "And my son plays with a toy gun that knows / how to open and close its eyes and say Mama."  I think the "that" in these lines is referring to the son, but wouldn't the sentence say "who" instead of "that."  It made me think the following parts about opening and closing its eyes and saying mama referred to the toy gun. I think, like the word, "Wildpeace," the definition combines conflicting meaning "son" and "gun". 

"A peace / without the big noise of beating swords into ploughshares, / without words, without / the thud of the heavy rubber stamp,"  Again the anaphora of the negative reasoning "without" reiterates a lack of stopping or any sign of stopping there is a a wish for rest in self and symbol, "[...] let it be /light, floating, like lazy white foam, / a little rest for the wounds-- / who speaks of healing?"

The parenthetical lines right after (And the howl of the orphans is passed from one generation / to the next, as in a relay race: the baton never falls.)"  I think in this part of the poem there's, again an ironic, sense of breaking the repetition and ironies in the language and scenarios to let the reader know that this cycle continues through generations.  This reminds me of generational trauma, something like immigration, based on the image of the stamp.

I feel the poem ends in a simple prayer and ends in the definition:

Let it come
like wild flowers,
suddenly, because the field
must have it: wildpeace

When in stressful times brought upon by war: of language, of definition, of the actuality of killing, and passing that on, that even if the war rages on, let their be that respite -- that slight healing.  Just for a little bit.  wildpeace.