Humble is the sparrow
on the sill at the end of the year.
Sorry is the miller
who has no barley for the beer.
Vain are the dolls
wrapped with a bow on the box.
Red is the rooster
who rides in the jaws of the fox.
Soft is the ivy
where the robin who died lies so still.
Hard is hangman
who works in the dawn's bitter chill.
Sweet are the tulips
elegant in spring, in summer so terse.
So pale your dying love
as a corporal folded in a burse.
_____________
for Word Garden Word List--Sharon Olds.
A corporal is a folded linen cloth upon which the Host and chalice are placed during the celebration of Mass. The corporal is carried in a container called a burse for reasons of reverence.
I didn't know that cloth was called a corporal. I admire this approach: a series of "Humble is", "Vain are", "Soft is...." It really works. Your imagery is, as always, vivid, especially the red rooster in the fox's jaws.
ReplyDeleteI love the flow of imagery - I could picture the colours as well as the feelings - Jae
ReplyDeleteThe religious similes are difficult for me to really follow, but the light and beauty of the images each with the contrast of its dark counterpart, work very well in this mix of nature and man's ..folly, perhaps? Or merely life's random cruelty.
ReplyDeleteI too loved the various images you came up with, all different, but as a whole they come together to make a beautiful poem.
ReplyDeleteStriking imagery, Shay, contrasting the soft and sweet against the harsh. I don't know much about Mass, so I learned some things, too!
ReplyDeleteThe peace and starkness combined is a powerful contrast. So often humans don't include themselves in nature's circle of life. I guess it is because we've so abused nature we forgot its significance to our own breath. Powerful writing Shay.
ReplyDeletesoft as rosary beads ...
ReplyDeleteSo stark the contrasts, so deep the paradoxes of life's aesthetics.
ReplyDelete