tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post4552934123627269308..comments2024-03-29T03:09:23.361-04:00Comments on Shay's Word Garden (Poetry & Such Like): Voice of MartyrsFireblossomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07040525704916368792noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-27935568963620655032015-07-21T10:50:04.658-04:002015-07-21T10:50:04.658-04:00Yeah, that's so much stuff here - good stuff t...Yeah, that's so much stuff here - good stuff that is. Not sure which is more perfect, her, "...removing the barbs/ she put there over time," or the, "sampler of disappointed looks," or her going without, "heart, stomach, ovaries/ in favor of giving everything to you" and pouring herself into the donation box. And then there's the critters...<br />Very cool, Shay.Other Maryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09189646933597252108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-11113847791840093312015-07-20T16:05:29.704-04:002015-07-20T16:05:29.704-04:00The martyr is a woman. The narrator is speaking to...The martyr is a woman. The narrator is speaking to her ungrateful husband, who has killed his wife slowly, over the bulk of a lifetime.<br /><br />Exquisite writing. So very sad though.<br /><br />These are my favorites:<br /><br />"Go ahead, dive into those beer-battered iguana steaks<br />and RC Cola"<br /><br />"her sharp eye and her dull scalpel"<br /><br />"last night's appalling Chinese take-out uneaten and wasted (!)<br />on the table and on the floor where it has spilled and mixed<br />with the pet hair on the carpet"<br /><br />"substituting congealed chicken kow for wafers and wine"<br /><br />"See the roaches, immortal and unstoppable as your jones"<br /><br />The ending is chilling and really makes the poem for me:<br />"who plays with, and then kills them, but who sometimes<br />reverses the sequence"<br /><br />It's kinder to just kill something first, and then make it your toy. I'm sure his wife wishes she could have been killed first.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-32789333993938372732015-07-20T07:38:24.456-04:002015-07-20T07:38:24.456-04:00"Now here you are, a donation box she has pou..."Now here you are, a donation box she has poured herself into,<br />See the ants, as industrious as if they were going to Mass"<br /><br />Two lines that really stand out for me. You see so deeply it must feel like drowning sometimes.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-7906836905651764792015-07-19T19:42:14.429-04:002015-07-19T19:42:14.429-04:00"made by hunchbacks from old cancer drugs&quo..."made by hunchbacks from old cancer drugs"<br /><br />Noir wit. Smokin`Cloudiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05853753108637831069noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-85709165526380466572015-07-19T16:30:44.892-04:002015-07-19T16:30:44.892-04:00As always a powerful & breathtaking piece!
Bea...As always a powerful & breathtaking piece!<br />Beautifully penned :D<br /><br />Lots of love,<br />SanaaSanaa Rizvihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06681404650477409830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-56570312554523490862015-07-19T14:46:26.115-04:002015-07-19T14:46:26.115-04:00"Too bad one can't make a sampler out of ..."Too bad one can't make a sampler out of a disappointed look--<br />you'd never need wallpaper."<br /><br />This is sharp enough to cut glass.Maude Lynnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03669688074743095866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-64503940489967345282015-07-19T14:05:50.327-04:002015-07-19T14:05:50.327-04:00This piece really took off for me in the third sta...This piece really took off for me in the third stanza and is sit orbiting! I wonder if the poem starts there? Either way, I thought you handled the transition from then to now very well, the movement was subtle and impactful. For instance, how the piece starts with the mother figure removing barbs put there herself and ends with the cat toying with ants before killing them (or the reverse), suggests to me a mirror, that the mother figure and the cat maybe playing the same game. I found that rather brilliant. Intentional or not your work always brings the reader to newer spaces, or atlas invites them to go somewhere other than the dusty spaces in-between the words. <br /><br />Also, I was very found of this line: <br /><br />Now here you are, a donation box she has poured herself into,<br />sleeping it off,<br />hating yourself,Isadora Gruyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13036782300945079952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-88499099756429523242015-07-19T12:45:28.623-04:002015-07-19T12:45:28.623-04:00Too bad one can't make a sampler out of a disa...Too bad one can't make a sampler out of a disappointed look--<br />you'd never need wallpaper.<br /><br />Now there is a quotable quote I'd like to frame and hang on my sitting room wall.<br /><br />;-)Kerry O'Connorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00720862912375945249noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-84559940482005279262015-07-19T11:09:42.514-04:002015-07-19T11:09:42.514-04:00So good I am rendered nearly mute in response. WOW...So good I am rendered nearly mute in response. WOW! You nailed it. "a donation box she has poured herself into." The industrious ants. Why are you not internationally famous? There must have been some mistake.Sherry Blue Skyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10769154286598233146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-17650201755412471052015-07-19T11:00:55.155-04:002015-07-19T11:00:55.155-04:00Agree with all comments above. Ouch! And yet the ...Agree with all comments above. Ouch! And yet the reader is also exhilarated by the pure energy and venom and vulnerability of it all. Terrific. Thanks for participating and bringinf your own twist. K. Outlawyerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15698845661756444061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-5067707300440755752015-07-19T09:37:32.465-04:002015-07-19T09:37:32.465-04:00Whew! SO many references! I love the resonance w...Whew! SO many references! I love the resonance with the short story "Yellow Wallpaper." If the barbs are disappointments, the wallpaper is up and by giving the body parts woman is complicite, a mockery of herself. Giving no-thing to the ants who love it! Thank God for cats and all the lessons they teach! Thank God for you, Shay, who put it together for me!<br />Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05723639294340760325noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3107838361391025851.post-9128412685218636112015-07-19T09:13:38.405-04:002015-07-19T09:13:38.405-04:00As always, you never bring the expected thing, but...As always, you never bring the expected thing, but always the shock, the surprise of your own gift. This is enough to freeze not just blood, but the engine that pumps it--and the liquid in the vision that blurs, assimilating it. Each line tops the last--I was esp knocked out by the number of samplers it would take to wallpaper a room--all the trite mottoes, end to end, all the barbed back-handed remarks that nothing, really can remove--the flesh itself has to reject them. Anyway--you are on quite a roll, dear Shay--you give us such wealth here every time you pick up that pen.hedgewitchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13090696134322515899noreply@blogger.com