Notes on “1 Corinthians 13:1 – Dead Friend” by Cameron Tricker​
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by Grace Hopps
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Cameron Tricker’s “1 Corinthians 13:1 – Dead Friend” is a plea for feeling. The bible verse referenced in the title reads, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol.” In the poem, Tricker’s speaker grieves their titular dead friend, calling them both “void-folk,” and inventive phrase that invokes the darkness of depression or suicidal tendencies. The bond between the speaker and their friend is shown to have been formed in opposition to this, shown by their “[a]rms entwined,” binding each other to life. The image of the arms shifts seamlessly into a chain link fence, and Tricker goes on to describe the late friend with more industrial imagery. However, Tricker subverts the cultural association of metal and machinery with callousness by closing the poem through the image of the passed friend as a molten metal, warm to bind others back together. Tricker’s poem shines a light on the beautiful, unfathomable kindness that can come from people who are themselves struggling.
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Notes on “1 Corinthians 13:1 – Dead Friend” by Cameron Tricker​
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Tricker’s poem masterfully subverts industrial imagery in order to craft a poignant acknowledgement of what we lose and what remains. The invocation of welding in the speaker and their friend’s promise to “bind each other / to this life,” their physical connection like “a chain-link fence” imbues typically rough, factory-adjacent images with warmth. Through Tricker’s emotional configurations the utilitarian bleakness of tar becomes the depth in a loved one’s eyes, an alchemical transformation from soulless material to the very essence of a soul. The lasting impact of the friend’s “unerring bravery” on the speaker and others is caringly represented through the language of metallurgy, as their “molten warmth / carried into the cracks of their being.” The speaker’s friend embodies the most admirable aspects of industry: its solidity, its persistence, its ability to “fix” and fortify; but the more insidious aspects of such manufacture still linger in the poem, partaking in “America’s decline.” We are challenged to consider whether it is unfair, that one must “meld” oneself down to help others, must disintegrate one’s strength in order to share it. But ultimately, the poem is about love: without it, as the Bible verse in the title states, we are “only a resounding gong or clanging symbol.” We find in Tricker’s poem that love is what distinguishes us from machines, what gives our symbols—and our poetry—meaning.
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