life
love
time
death
shifting
sands of
unexplained
puzzles
flower
mysteries
daily
unfolding, nightly shutting
to
contain daylight's essence
releasing
again with a new dawn
the
need to convey beauty
forms
in the minds of men
language is painted
as
India ink drops and fills
round
forms, pear-shapes, slashes, dots,
letters
conveying stories of life, ideas,
metaphors,
more like
textured
glass -- cut, leaded, beveled to prisms
holding
refracted light, retains life's echoes
wood
grained text
blocks
English becomes sponge
creates
texture
never
sufficient
a
magpie language
wants
to define a
a
world where
paradoxes
can create tragedy
men's shallow lives wallpaper-peeled
men's shallow lives wallpaper-peeled
expose
a pastiche of printed thoughts
pasted
on common boards
success
emblazoned on billboards
futility
hidden by smiles
time stretches
while a cat yawns
when
a fish waits
movement
turns to music
Greek
columns carve rhythms
women
dream a dance
history
fills the structures
volumes
stack cellar to roof
pages
curl at the corner
tourists
tramp each street
prowl
catacombs
and
hope to find the essence
an explanation of
love
an
elegance of
being
a
reason for
erosion
A
question comes ringing down the aeons:
what's
the charge?
© Gay Reiser Cannon * All Rights Reserved
there's a lot going on here...it's like a constant stretching and moving but then also pauses with room to breathe and think and re-think...
ReplyDeletea cat stretches
a fish waits
movement turns to music.... that part esp. touched me... have yet to find out why...
The dilemma is trying to explain what can't be - we use form, space, time, matter, air, words, art and yet it all escapes to ether or simply charged particles.
ReplyDeleteIt all feels random, but as if we are searching for a connection. The mind wants to sees patters.
ReplyDeleteI found this part especially effective:
stay insufficent
to a
world so strange
where
paradoxes create tragedy
you're gonna think this is strange but -- this made me think of taking a sponge painting a child does, and then doing a Rosharche's type of "look at this, tell me what you see" test on the image, and then writing a poem about someone's description (or a complication of descriptions). this is a good way to find material of which to write poetry. :)
ReplyDeleteDance to the Moulin Rouge
Wonderful verse.
ReplyDeleteAnd structure is just awesome. Awesomely awesome in fact. Wish I'd have written it.
I especially like this bit: "a cat stretches / a fish waits / movement turns to music".
ReplyDeleteThank you Maureen, skyraft, zongrik and Marina. It's not my usual way of writing, but sometimes doing things in a different way produces useful results. I appreciate your comments.
ReplyDeleteThis poem has a feeling of timelessness. Life, love, time, death -- so much to say about each of these. Some beautiful lines, such as 'life dreams a dance' and 'the catacombs release an essence.' Just love the FEEL of this poem.
ReplyDeletewhew...this is a cascade of feeling and emotion gay....what a great flow you achieved with some internal slant rhyme....there are some wonderful one liners...shallow lives peel like wallpaper being one of them...this is really good and one i think you could sit with and get so much out of...
ReplyDeleteI really love this... I have been thinking so much about the same things lately, perhaps it's getting older, or watching my parents get older... we dance with life, and death, everyday. Beautiful work!
ReplyDeleteTwists and turns. Pretzels. An interspersion. Ebbs and flows. A life montage.
ReplyDeleteYour piece wakes the imagination. I'm a little dizzy but I'm glad for the experience.
Cheers!
The word placements seems to mirror your words Gay ~ Creative presentation ~ It left me feeling that some things like these themes are a challenge to capture & paint on the canvas ~
ReplyDeletethese words stir me like shifting sands i want to pick up individual grains of and read their meaning, and then again the subtly altered meaning each takes on on being moved again... i feel as if i could read and read and never quite be done - perfect shape for this, Gay.
ReplyDeleteso many seemingly random thoughts...brought together nicely
ReplyDeleteshallow lives peel like wallpaper (loved that line) ...yes, I thought "randomness" as well here, but yet life is just that! A very intriguing poem.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletea cataract of clippings tumbling into the mind to find sense from the motion.
ReplyDeletewhich is my linear, if a little abstract reaction to the piece.
I really appreciate the effect Gay. I kind of got elevator tummy.
like when G's mess with our internal gravity regulator as we decelerate, or ascend
which I did, which was V.cool!!!
This is a dizzying but rewarding climb...questioning EVERYTHING!...a departure in style for you, I think...but interesting...and I'll be back tomorrow morning with a strong cup of coffee to ponder again. ~jackie~
ReplyDeleteThis is like that award winning poem, displayed on a pedestal. And we wonder - how did she do it?
ReplyDeleteSo musical and abstract, crystal clear at the same time. Well done, Gay! Well done...
Would love to hear you read this, with the pauses and the nuggets of rhyme.
ReplyDeleteThere's fluidity and movement to this piece, love it.
ReplyDeleteLovely Gay! The title, photo and poem fit together perfectly. The "futility shaded by smiles" touched me.
ReplyDeleteMany thoughts provocatively presented. Very nice.
ReplyDelete" a
ReplyDeleteworld so strange
where
paradoxes create tragedy"
This part was the ones that struck me the most. There's a sense of rhythmic breathing to this poem, almost makes it alive... beautifully done!
history marks time
ReplyDeletelayers turn back
curling at the corner
Perhaps the secret is to recognize the pieces as they pass and place them when we find a space for them to fit. So much is out of our control.
I do love the extent of your talents.
I love to see the tapestry that emerges in your random time elements!
ReplyDeleteI love the form to be something like a sketch were we can draw lines to connecting. I also like how it progresses towards order (at least how I read it). Like pieces of a puzzle coming together...
ReplyDelete