Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

A Little Scribble and an Honorable Mention

At flashy fiction, RJ Clarken asked, "what color are you?" I combined this with the largely blue mosaics of Isaiah Zagar as photographed by my very dear friend Daryl Edelstein at Real Toads mini-challenge, and here is the result, a humble little poem to have come from so many ingredients, but I hope you'll like it.

The second poem I wrote some weeks ago, and entered in a competition in which I am told it received honorable mention. Everyone's a winner, baby. At any rate, now I can post it here. The labels at the bottom are for the second poem.

"Thin Air"

I am gold
behind the cat's eyes.

I am silver
inside a drop of rain.

I am red
in the heart of a strawberry.

You can't see me
though I am right in front of your eyes.

I am blue...
blue...
as an empty sky.

___________  

"Offering For The Moon"

After the last time,
I said that I was done.

Lies had slept in the mouths of every lover I ever kissed,
And so I have leant lazy against silence, since--
Like a cat tail drowsing easy at lake side.

To give one's self, naked, to someone else
Is to lose one's balance,
And falling down the sharp shale wash
Is not flying--
I have become, now, more basin than bird.

Still,
We have known each other for a long time,
As each star knows both light and darkness.
The moon may be mad, but never lies,
And so, for you,
I trust;
For you,
I love;
For you, my heart offers itself
Beyond falling and beyond time.

________

14 comments:

  1. Oh how I love that song. Do you think you could even tolerate being alive without Sarah? I know I would have died years ago if she didn't sing for me.

    These are especially beautiful:

    "I am silver
    inside a drop of rain"

    "You can't see me
    though I am right in front of your eyes."

    "Lies had slept in the mouths"

    "I have leant lazy against silence"

    "more basin than bird" ... Hollow, gutted, presumably empty, perhaps filled (but dependent on another entity---liquid love---to be used and to make you feel more than a shell)

    rosemarymint.wordpress.com

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  3. Both are so beautiful...the beauty of a few words that can have the reader speaking volumes.

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  4. FTR, Shay---There was only one honorable mention...

    If I have your permission, I'd like to use the first poem in this post (giving you credit, of course) as an example during a creative writing camp I'm teaching the last two weeks of school. You put a little twist into something that we often do ("color poems").

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  5. Both are delightful, but the first one is so stripped to essentials, it's almost like looking at little symbols or pictures more than words--which makes it astonishing, in how much it can say. The second is one of your more conversational love poems, no tricks and shadows, very straightforward. The basin-bird comparison is a great pivot, and the end is just perfect. I honorably mention that these are outstanding, especially coming from a strumpet with an ink pen.

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  6. Sarah Mclachlan has a house on the beach in Tofino!!!!And I caught the tail end of a song when she was singing at the festival on Strawberry Island once. Them were the days!

    I love your color poem.....blue as an empty sky. And I totally relate to the second poem, and being "more basin than bird". Oh I so hear you. I now fear that losing of one's balance. But your closing stanza is beautiful - calm and loving "beyond falling and beyond time." Sigh. Just beautiful.

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  7. These lines alone deserve more than honorable mention, they should be written across the sky in indelible smoke!
    To give one's self, naked, to someone else
    Is to lose one's balance,
    And falling down the sharp shale wash
    Is not flying--
    I have become, now, more basin than bird.

    And I love your little mosaic of a poem - each colour to make up a part of the beautiful whole.

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  8. love this and that song . thank you

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  9. LOVE this:

    "I am gold
    behind the cat's eyes.

    I am silver
    inside a drop of rain."

    and in the second the bit about losing balance in nakedness I really love that. So much truth.

    Really enjoyed both of these, Shay! Smiles to you!

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  10. First poem - wow! Everything in it is just perfect!

    Secondly - congratulations!

    You write amazing poetry, and so many more need to read it! :-) Thanks for the Sarah too...

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  11. Congrats on your win. I always knew you were a winna, baby!
    I love both of these poems. So quietly beautiful.

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  12. So, may I assume that Emily Dickinson pulled a Lazarus and submitted the winning entry?

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  13. whoever ran that competition doesn't know shit!!!

    stunning! an exquisite love poem!

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