So I kind of understood indirection to be sort of metaphorical speak or a way of writing a poem in which emotions are understood but not explicitly stated. I chose this poem because it seems to be using phrases like "When the city is rotting" and "Feathered language / Heavy as freedom" to convey emotion without explicitly stating what that emotion is.
I agree Emma, this poem is very indirect about the statement that they are trying to make about the world and how it responds to situations. For example, the lines, "healable/ yellow flowers lining the highway, makes me thing that the author is referring to the tradition of putting flowers beside the road where people died in car accidents. The author seems to be commenting on the fact that, while maybe it is nice to do or it is habit, it is not fixing anything, it is just something the world does now because they have always done it. This is one of the many examples of ways the author is commenting on the plant indirectly.
Hi Emma,
I also feel Hirschfield is saying indirection occurs through the use of metaphor. It seems that what is not said is key here. The last line ‘A tiger in its mouth,’ helped clarify the idea of emotion coming through a symbolic statement. Your poem helped me understand how meaning and feeling can be conveyed through metaphorical language.