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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Elegant Enigma



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
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

27 comments:

  1. 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...
    a cat stretches
    a fish waits
    movement turns to music.... that part esp. touched me... have yet to find out why...

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  2. 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.

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  3. It all feels random, but as if we are searching for a connection. The mind wants to sees patters.
    I found this part especially effective:
    stay insufficent
    to a
    world so strange
    where
    paradoxes create tragedy

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  4. 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. :)


    Dance to the Moulin Rouge

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  5. Wonderful verse.

    And structure is just awesome. Awesomely awesome in fact. Wish I'd have written it.

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  6. I especially like this bit: "a cat stretches / a fish waits / movement turns to music".

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  7. Thank 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.

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  8. This 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.

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  9. whew...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...

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  10. I 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!

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  11. Twists and turns. Pretzels. An interspersion. Ebbs and flows. A life montage.
    Your piece wakes the imagination. I'm a little dizzy but I'm glad for the experience.
    Cheers!

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  12. 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 ~

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  13. these 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.

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  14. so many seemingly random thoughts...brought together nicely

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  15. shallow lives peel like wallpaper (loved that line) ...yes, I thought "randomness" as well here, but yet life is just that! A very intriguing poem.

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  17. a cataract of clippings tumbling into the mind to find sense from the motion.

    which 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!!!

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  18. 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~

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  19. This is like that award winning poem, displayed on a pedestal. And we wonder - how did she do it?

    So musical and abstract, crystal clear at the same time. Well done, Gay! Well done...

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  20. Would love to hear you read this, with the pauses and the nuggets of rhyme.

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  21. There's fluidity and movement to this piece, love it.

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  22. Lovely Gay! The title, photo and poem fit together perfectly. The "futility shaded by smiles" touched me.

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  23. Many thoughts provocatively presented. Very nice.

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  24. " a
    world 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!

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  25. history marks time
    layers 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.

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  26. I love to see the tapestry that emerges in your random time elements!

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  27. I 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...

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