We are all so crushable, some of us eloquent.
And that's not even the right word.
So...arterial?
The pulse of every beat,
joy, peace, loss, grief
the unbearable, the unimaginable
our one.true.life sustained in letters.
Sometimes we get it just right, nick a jugular,
raise our hands to the drenching of blood rain
or we are dry,
the words of our bones
toothpicks.
or we are dry,
the words of our bones
toothpicks.
.
.
.
.
Oooooh, my Annie. I love this. I see your tender, painfully-beating heart in this and I wish I could hold the warm muscle in my cool hands to soothe you. Your words are just right and in the perfect order. I love you, dear friend! XO
ReplyDelete"It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things." ~Stephen Mallarme
Yes, indeed, we are all "crushable." We are the folded, spindled, mutilated. We are humans. It's a rough gig.
ReplyDelete(But it has its blessings)
@ Marion - I like that quote! Strange how you can create silence with words, and yet I know it true. Love you!
ReplyDelete@ Jonas - Yes. Fallible. I hope you are doing well Jonas. A rough but blessed gig indeed.
'the words of our bones'....fuck....that just made my day annie...i'm smashed...
ReplyDeletedry or gushing
ReplyDeletepoetry is
just as stark
and relentless
as this.
Every time I write, I can't help thinking - go ahead slice a vein and bleed on the page.
ReplyDeleteThis reminded me of Heather Nova's lyrics to Truth & Bone:
"Sometimes I can feel you breathing into me.
And these hands I can feel them tugging at my sleeve,
I move through the day in the rhythm that I've known.
I've got this crazy dream of stripping down to truth and bone."
The words of our bones are enfolded by the flesh of all we are. (Hugs)Indigo
Sometimes we get it right....
ReplyDeletelike this.
The last three lines
perfect.
"dry as a toothpick"
That's us when the writing isn't coming together.
But when it does... oh Lord.
You get just right, more often than not. Sometimes just making us think, is enough. Great image too…
ReplyDelete@ Manik - Making your day with words seems like a tall order, you are "eloquent". Thank you!
ReplyDelete@ Andreas - I think poetry is relentless within us. It seems so odd to me that prior to 2009 I had never written one line! Where was it? Perhaps relentless has a beginning...and an end.
@ Indigo - I've never heard this song! The lyrics! Beautiful. I'm off to listen. ((Hugs)) my friend. I hope you are doing well.
@ Yvonne - Sometimes we write it right. Sometimes we live it right. Sometimes we are the desert, and our prose also.
@ Anthony - Funny how I write not to make others think, put to put an image to the puzzle pieces of my own thoughts. Thank you. Those really are the stairs. Thankfully empty at the moment.
I think of verse writing as a way to say stuff I find hard to say ... or hard to know ... or hard to figure out. I am as crushable as as a cigarette paper some days. Not all days thankfully. Some days just knowing that helps me to hang on.
DeleteLove you Annie. xx Jos
All too true.
ReplyDeleteI think it's because when we get it right, there's more to our words than just words, and when we don't, it's just empty sounds scratching around for something, after something.
I should add thank you as well, because it's such a fine poem! Thank you! :)
ReplyDelete@ Jos - I find music lyrics the same way. I imagine that the lyrics are composed in the pain, but not sung until after the healing. Maybe poetry happens that smae way, but not necessarily on blogs. The blogger/poet seems to be more NOW. I compose and I write as I experience, not after. Love you too Citrus!
ReplyDelete@ Matt D - Thanks for catching up in here. That's a nice compliment. Very interesting how different Christmas is in Japan. And I love what you say about our words scratching around for something and after something. It is like Jos says....all those syllables simply trying to figure themselves out into a cohesive sentence.
I think most poetry is a cry for attention, wanting to be heard. Whether it comes from loneliness, outrage or whatever, we need to have our voices heard, our feelings known. I'm sorry I missed this one earlier.
ReplyDeletei don't like the second and third lines. the point of writing is to find the right words and write them, not wonder aloud what they are to the reader. i think the first line is strong. 'beat' and 'grief' have a rhyming quality that's good, which is another reason to consider icing the second and third lines: get to that little singsong exchange quicker. nice write.
ReplyDelete@ Ed - I am so mesmerized by your critiques...probably because I don't yet fully understand them(but am so appreciative of the non-smoke blowing!). It makes me wonder if the question make you uncomfortable? Those lines were so important to me...to always be in the question. But how you saw them...a wondering aloud to the reader, was really me wondering aloud to myself. I think when I am sure in myself, my poetry will mean more to you, no? Ha! Even here i am questioning.
ReplyDelete