Friday, November 27, 2020

Poetry Friday: In gratitude for unfinished work

The task this Poetry Friday was to write a poem in conversation with one of our older poems (or to revise it) in keeping with our overall 2020 theme of hindsight/foresight. 

Well.  MUCH could be said about this year in hindsight. And I have a well of poems I've written (most with my poetry sisters) with which I could converse. But I wanted to go back to December of 2019, when our task was to write a poem of gratitude.  I wrote such a poem, then.  I was happy with it.  But I also found a fragment of a poem from that challenge that I'd never finished (the first stanza below.) 

Why not see where it led? Where does gratitude...even a fragment of gratitude... lead you? 


I am grateful for 

silence, marshmallow rich, 

that grows as I walk, alone;

I can feel the silence expand 

to the sky, to the half-moon,

to the constellations.


I am grateful for

evenings, tender-crisp,

on the edge of shared winter;

I can feel the night collapse

to the marrow of the earth,

to the well of oldest time. 


I am grateful for

hearts, layers-deep

beating apart and together;

I can feel the rhythm move

us to our fingertips, to the end 

of love’s reach.  


               ----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved) 


My poetry sisters' hindsight can be found here:

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Carol's Corner.

11 comments:

  1. This gives me the shivers, Sara. I wish I'd been able to be as pure in mine. Also, the 2nd descriptive line of each stanza? PERFECTION. I aspire to this sort of appreciation today. Here goes...

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  2. A stunning finish to a 'Once upon a time' start. That marshmallow, half-moon, earth's mallow and hearts beating are rich and lovely. Gorgeous writing.

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  3. So beautiful. So perfectly crafted. Those images. Wow!

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  4. I love the food-related descriptions. So good!

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  5. Oh, where is the end of love's reach? What a glorious phrase, this whole poem gives me Leonard Cohen vibes. Your Thanksgiving meal metaphors are also somehow a perfect nod to the spirit of the whole thing.

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  6. Before I read Tanita's comment, I was thinking this could be a song! Gorgeous.

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  7. Sara, that's a beautiful fragment, that first stanza. But that SECOND stanza! Your fragment led you to a real jewel. I feel that one in the hollow of my chest.

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  8. I think you turned your fragment of a poem into something beautiful about gratitude. Wonderful images. "On the edge of shared winter/ I can feel the night collapse."

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  9. Oh, that second stanza is especially gorgeous! I love the way you structured this poem and crafted such beautiful images.

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  10. This poem sinks in slowly, the way a marshmallow puffs when carefully roasted, the way the moon shifts phase, the way we feel our hearts beat in our fingertips--suddenly all the way there with the change barely perceptible. Gorgeous.

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  11. So much to be grateful for. I loved these lines:
    I can feel the night collapse

    to the marrow of the earth,

    to the well of oldest time.

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