Friday, September 7, 2007
Poetry Friday: sweet nothings
sweet nothings
What bitter black pearls
do you feed me? Each word
stings my lips as you coil
a necklace of desire within
my mouth. I would that they were
stones, easy to spit out
and not such chained smoothness
that I pull them out,
over and over, to taste
the tang of praise
against my tongue.
----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)
Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Semicolon
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
"the tang of praise". I like that phrase. I also read and re-read, loving the rhythm.
ReplyDeleteNow, that's just full of evocative, intense, meaty stuff that stays with you a while. Such wonderful metaphors.
ReplyDeleteEvocative is exactly the word I was going to use ....
ReplyDeleteWow, Sara. Praise is a double-edged sword, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful.
Bittersweet, I should think. I've never been comfortable with praise myself. Brava.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the others here -- evocative, excellent rhythm and turns of phrase.
ReplyDeleteIt's no wonder you like Anne Compton so much -- your use of imagery is often similar (different images, but the same way with words!)
My my, that's quite good! One of the best original poems I've seen on a Poetry Friday.
ReplyDeleteThanks, all. You know, I realized that in posting this poem about needing/wanting/
ReplyDeleteloving/hating praise, I've put myself in the position of needing/wanting comments on it.
See why I despise/love those sweet nothings so?
Another masterpiece, Sara. You've nailed that deep ambivalence we're often not even conscious of.
ReplyDelete