Plateaus and Highlands

Plateaus and Highlands – Interactive Analysis

Plateaus and Highlands

Poet: Dr. Alireza Bemanian

February 22, 2026

© www.bemanian.com

Destinations, plateaus, highland and hills, mesas, tors and cliffs,
perceptual, dream bounded, constrained and circumscribed, or jumped and leaped,
hesitancies, reluctancies and disinclinations,
barracks, garrisons, the billets and the imposed lids,
the abandoned. derelict, and discarded adjoining links,
jarring and vexing, jeers, the catcalls hiss.

Mounds and mounts, the heaps and piles, the commutations or valleys,
breezes and wafts, zephyrs and drafts remain passersby,
the rooted trees attune solo songs, stand, to repress the draught,
foci, focused targets and purposes, if, circumvented, skirted, and evaded,
eluded, fudged and hedged, then, the strains, traumas and breeds, sprain, wrench and twist,
the burdens, linger, loiter, and dawdle, while the roots shrink, wither, and stem and wane.

intertwine and mingle, interlink and blend, braid and connect,
tassel, thread and flounce,
the fabric of creation, conceptions, and commencements, spread, fumble, and reach—
waves and surfs, curls and surges, ripples and rollers interweave and interlace,
step and start, budge and shift, and nudge and jolt,
the alchemy reigns and runs, judge and lead. ascertain and proceed.

The scenes, sights, and outlooks, forests and trees, shrubs and weeds,
gestures and shrugs, nods and points, curtail the seize, annex the deletes;
vistas and views are vast and immense, tenders and offers to sow and seed.

Mountains and massifs raising sharp, soaring; valleys and gorges spread and spur,
the vales and dales mystify, baffle; ravines, canyons, mysterious, covert,
arcane, esoteric, convoluted contours, convolve enigmas, twist the unknowns —
vibe essence, the core and kernel are to demand and insist,
be bemused and dazed, confound perplexities, surmount. to claim and command,
the chirps of the birds and fowls; deers and fawns’ bleatings, yammering,
the scenes do surround, commotions abound, to surmise the marvels, to infer the bonds.

The hisses, hecklings, rustles of the breeze, snap, and sinch, retort and bark, yell and nip.
ensembles and orchestras, liveliness, vigor and vivacity,
sparkle, enthrall, spellbind, and captivate,
exoduses, enactments, fusses or upheavals, stages, arenas and rostrums,
to propound, propose and promote, while, the jaunts, sprees and strolls, yield and promulgate.

Gyrate, revolve and orbit, hills and knolls, peaks and mounts,
lead and steer, presage and bode, precede and herald,
pending trays and tills, the peaks and crests, apogees and apexes,
the joys shift to eagle, the stints and turns,
the sky’s shades to perceive, the darkness, or reposes and resets.

The summits, pinnacles of perceptions, insistently upward,
tenaciously timid, none forbidden bids,
discernments and judgements, are attained and fulfilled,
the junctures, stages, content and proceed,
where, the glares, stares, and sheens, curtain, drape, the porous, shaky seams.

The tops and peaks, twinkle, flicker, and glow; new horizons, sets of immaculate,
pristine, rings, rims and margins, the crests and crowns;
far out, keep poking and delving, the fields of marvels, delights, and trances,
and you and me, surrounded by ballets and dances,
accepting and divulging, the secrets; mysteries and thrillers, of, kindness, leniency, and forgiveness.
©www.bemanian.com
February 22, 2026

Stanza Analysis

Comprehensive Analysis & Commentary

Themes & Interpretations

Topology as Epistemology

The poem refuses abstraction, insisting that cognitive and spiritual states possess spatial, geographical characteristics. Mesas, tors and cliffs are not descriptive settings but cognitive blockages; the vales and dales that mystify represent the necessary descent into the unknown preceding genuine understanding. Landscape is not a setting but a cognitive grammar.

The Lexical Fugue

Dr. Bemanian’s signature technique deploys cascading synonymic clusters — a “lexical fugue” — that approaches a single concept from multiple, overlapping angles. “Hesitancies, reluctancies and disinclinations” is a poetics of exhaustion: not fatigue, but completeness. By refusing the single, reductive signifier, the poem acknowledges the irreducible nature of truth.

The Rooted Against the Transient

Breezes and zephyrs “remain passersby” while “the rooted trees attune solo songs, stand.” The tree is the poem’s emblem of committed purpose against evanescent forces. Evasion of purpose is not neutral; it is somatic damage — the roots shrink, wither, and wane under the weight of purposelessness.

The Alchemical Dialectic

The poem is governed by a dialectic between constraint and explosive movement. Stanza I’s barracks and billets are opposed by Stanza III’s surging alchemy of creation. Spiritual transformation is inherently alchemical: it requires the intense heat and pressure of conflict to “judge and lead… ascertain and proceed.”

Bewilderment as Method

“Be bemused and dazed, confound perplexities, surmount.” The poem positions full entry into bewilderment as the necessary precondition for surpassing it. Authentic knowledge of the unknown requires genuine not-knowing as its prior condition. The valley must be fully descended before the ascent becomes meaningful.

The Ethical Summit

The highest altitude the human spirit can achieve is not solitary, detached enlightenment but the radical openness to the other that makes forgiveness possible. “And you and me, surrounded by ballets and dances” — the entire nine-stanza climb resolves not in solitary glory but in shared human space. Kindness and forgiveness are the hard-won crests and crowns of the fully realized life.

© 2026 Dr. Alireza Bemanian. All Rights Reserved.