"alice, tumbling." by amanda lovelace
The mention of "alice" in the title definitely had me thinking of the 1989 bonus track "Wonderland." But it doesn't seem to be a match with poem. The song discusses a relationship, while the poem talks about family history, the past, and the narrator's connection to it.
The first stanza of the poem, "one may morning / when i wasn't looking / a portal opened from / new york to dublin." So, I began trying to think of any songs that discuss portals, time travel, or any other method of getting from Point A to Point B. That's when "I Hate It Here" came to mind. In comparison to the stanza above, the line in the song, "I hate it here so I will go to / Secret gardens in my mind / People need a key to get to / The only one is mine." I always assumed this song was about the book The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, so I didn't make the connection to "alice" (I'm assuming Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, here) right away, but if the poem is in response, it's possible that the poet chose Alice instead of The Secret Garden.
There are a few lines that echo - in the poem, the first line of the second stanza, "in my mind," and the line in the song mentioned above, "...I will go to / Secret gardens in my mind / People need a key to get to." In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, she follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole, where she eventually finds a key sitting on top of a table, and they key opens a door into...a secret garden!
The other line that stood out in the poem, "something i get to call mine," also seems to parallel, "People need a key to get to / The only one is mine," in the song.
After struggling with the last few, it was really fun to feel like I had some success with this one. I find it so interesting the route the poet decided to take in responding to the song, and I just love it!
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