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| Henri Matisse - Icarus |
my soul with Icarus' wings
flies to touch the sun.
With a song I wind
and bind my grasping nature.
Can't let it amble,
Turn around two times. . ,
the flames of summer consume
that fleeting freedom.
Icarus' wings melt
before my spirit explodes.
It cools floating down
Music plays, I soar!
With the updraft, I will fly.
Words bind wax to wings.
Freedom forged from love,
I flee my life's labyrinth,
explore worlds above.
© Gay Reiser Cannon * 2012 * All Rights Reserved
fly on poet...and music certainly gives me wings at times you know...glad it cooled on the way down...words bind wax to wings, a very cool line...now fly on...smiles...
ReplyDeleteLately music seems to be my chief inspiration. I see it in everyone's poems; I hear it everywhere.
DeleteI also very much liked the line 'Words bind wax to wings". Your words reflect well the movement of Matisse's figure.
ReplyDeleteYour comments are always valuable to me Maureen. I appreciate your viewpoint. I think your vision of art is very refined and informs everything you do.
Deletei love the mood in this...it's adventurous and lightweight and happy...Words bind wax to wings..oh yes...and surely you fly already..and you shouldn't ever stop..
ReplyDeleteYes Claudia. Sometimes I think I fly to high, attempt too much and become singed, my words lose their original intent. Coming back to edit sometimes allows them to fly higher, say more, become more buoyant. Thank you.
DeleteLove this....Freedom forged from love
ReplyDeleteI flee my life's labyrinth
And soar skies above.....well done. :)
I think poetic freedom is born of and borne by love. Maybe not an earthly love, but a love of words, a love of communication, a love of art, a striving to understand that force that wills us to create.
DeleteThis is very playful, like the hokey pokey for the soul.
ReplyDeleteThat is the coolest response I've ever had. You put your left muse in and you shake it all about..ha! Exceptional comment!
DeleteReally nice...and--thankfully!--cool! I love the freedom of flying birds I see each morning. Their daily, singular quest--food!
ReplyDeleteFly little bird.
Fly with the wind.
For if you don't,
you've sinned
Thank you, Beachannie, for most pleasant thoughts this evening....
PEACE!
Thanks Steve. Your support always keeps me aloft and wanting to write more.
Deletecaught me with the first stanza. Also like 'words bind wax to wings'
ReplyDeleteThank you Mark. My fellow poets words keep me inspired and seeking to carry on. Writing is challenging sometimes. I think I've nothing to say and the comments on my poems make me return and try again.
Deleteso delightful, this verse just floats on its own wings of light :)
ReplyDeleteI love how you wrote that. I think "light" is one of my symbols. I don't do it consciously but I notice in the re-reading I use it or a reference to it in nearly every poem I write.
Deletekeep on flying high Gay!! I love the mentions of Icarus' wings... beautiful
ReplyDeleteI'm so proud of you Anthony. I feel like you were a fledgling I nurtured not so long ago and look how you've spread your wings and reached for the truth beyond. So happy to call you friend.
DeleteAnd words don't melt like wax. Like I always say, time flies when you're flying. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteYou'll never realize what knowing you to the extent I do has affected me as a writer and a person. I can't express it but it has been invaluable to me and to all the others we have met here in this inner sanctum of cyberspace. To have read you would have been an inspiration but to have communicated with you is a gift.
DeleteBeautiful! Love the flow...
ReplyDeleteThat you read my work, Emmett, is an honor.
DeleteThis is lovely Gay. I specially like:
ReplyDeleteWith music I wind
With the updraft I will fly
Words bind wax to wings
Your unflagging support week after week is amazing, Grace. Your own work has taken wing in the time we've known each other. You are becoming so very skilled. You are like an apprentice who has become a full fledged artist now.
DeleteIt is amazing what writing can do for the soul. It's an instant uplift for sure. Wonderful expression of that freedom :)
ReplyDeleteLori I am always so happy to read your comments and know that you have read my work. It is so amazing to realize we can influence each other's writing.
DeleteLove the Matisse, love your words, but the best part is being inspired by your freedom, forged by love.
ReplyDeleteAnna, what an education, what a joy, what a thermal to have come to know you, your talent and your work. That you read and comment as originally as your own work deepens my desire to think harder, write tighter, communicate more.
DeleteA truly beautiful poem and it works so well with the Matisse.
ReplyDeleteMatt, your dedication, your continuous support and your friendship in addition to the masterful poetry you produce never fails to inspire me. I feel you are one of my original contacts in this poetic world we occupy and one of my greatest inspirations.
Deletethe flames of summer consume
ReplyDeletethat fleeting freedom
Icarus' wings melt
This man does seem to be falling and I love how you captured Matisse's image with your words!
Thank you Margaret. I didn't use the Matisse as the inspiration (unless it was subliminal. I have long known this piece and have an enduring love affair with Matisse and his dual-side artist, Picasso). But it came to me as the best illustration of what I wanted to convey. Thank you for coming by.
DeletePS - my Baptismal name was Margaret. I went by that all through grade school. It seemed too grand a name for me and my family called me Gay. Sometimes I think I should take it up again, but it's a little late now ;-)
Love this..and of course, words bind wax to wings...what an image. Love the Matisse, and always mesmerized by the Icarus myth. Great job here!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jackie. Always love your comments. Love your work. You make me wish there were more hours in a day. You seem to have so much life and energy. I envy that.
DeleteI like the line "freedom forged form love" It's an inspiring line for me and brings me back to your picture for this poem. wonderful.
ReplyDeletehttp://leah-jamielynn.typepad.com/
Thank you so much. See the note above. Thank you for your continuing support. I am honored that you want to read my work.
DeleteLovely, light feeling to this write Gay. Don't fly too close to the sun with icarus wings! :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe because these days I feel so earthbound. I haven't traveled out of Texas in a year and my wings are aching for other places. The internet is connecting me in these ineffable ways to people like you who give me friends who love what I love, value what I value, give what I give. I think of this as my real neighborhood. I'm not apt to go too high, but as summer comes to my tropical home I do feel rather too close to the sun.
DeleteYou nailed the poet's ambition, that of lifting on the wings of song and going all the places a mortal fixed being can't see inside the labyrinth of knowns. Daedalus could not himself figure out his own labyrinth until he flew up above it (on those wax wings his boy would steal and unwisely flaunt); the labyrinth drawing was immensely popular in ancient times -- a Rubic's Cube-like doodle found on rocks and under bridges: always perceptible only from above. To draw it was to know the pattern, I guess, and this piece sees well that we cannot be free unless we're willing to say how lost in the maze we are. Trick is, after connoitering the work from above, we have to get back down to the work of writing our way through. Fine work Gay. - Brendan
ReplyDeleteOh Brendan - you have expanded my territory of thinking and writing exponentially. I so admire your information based on the vast amount of reading you have done. If you once were addicted to drinking it was a shadow of your addiction to the written word. You are a master of the world's mythology and it not only informs everything you write, it informs your language and your thought elevating it even as you explore what might be considered the dark, the seamy, the more base elements of human nature. In your hands the ideas, the ruminations, the considerations of human life and frailty truly fly on exalted wings.
DeleteYou are the Daedalus to your poems--wonderful craftsperson. K.
ReplyDeleteYou are so kind to me and say the most wonderful things. I'm trying to get to that level of commenting. Thank you for being there.
Delete"Words bind wax to wings"....this is such a lovely poem, Gay.
ReplyDeleteShort, precise, and so full of thought and intelligence.
Lady Nyo
Jane, your poems, your eye, your discernment and you ability to cut to the truth will always inspire me.
DeleteWow....super positive poem...I love the use of Icarus - but also how you send him back up into the sky...put the wax back on his wings ....signifies for me perfectly the ups and downs of life- but ending on an up!
ReplyDeleteThanks Stu for coming by, commenting and being so good to support me and my work. It is very much appreciated.
DeleteWonderful, Gay-- I especially love
ReplyDeleteWith a song I wind
and bind my grasping nature
can't let it amble
Turn around two times
the flames of summer consume
that fleeting freedom
It's wonderful to see a poem about writing's transcendent qualities-- I often experience it that way--xxxj
Your transcendent pieces never fail to inspire me Jenne. You bring such a strong unique voice to poetry. You are brave and relentless. I admire that.
DeleteYour choice of Icarus is very appropriate for the poet, serking to touchnwhat cannot be touched but never dying in the desire to find our way there, if only to say we tried. That possibility of coming to be ourselves, alive, awake to so much power to become what imagination can dream, that never dies, though the mortal wax of the soul melt and fume away to nothingness.
ReplyDelete