Friday, May 27, 2022

Poetry Friday: String, Thread, Rope, Chain

Photo taken at the Renwick Gallery, Washington D.C.
Exhibit:  This Present Moment, Crafting a Better World



May's challenge was to write a poem using the words string, thread, rope and/or chain.  I struggled with this one. For starters, I couldn't make our monthly ZOOM session, and found out how much I need that push to get going.  Frankly,  a LOT of  us missed this month's session---too much going on.  And then I cast about for any excuse not to begin: Time was running short. I should work on my novel. No one else was going to make it either, right? 

But...then Tanita said she was posting on Friday. I couldn't let her post alone. So... I just let the words take me where they took me.  Today's post is by grace.  


String, Thread, Rope, Chain

I think of elephants, 
knotted trunk and tail
a string of calves and mothers, 
no one lost

I think of bobbins,
wound tight with promise
of seams and hems and darts
no undone thread

I think of water,
shining in the shadowed well,
roped to light by gentle bucket,
no splintered days

I think of paper,
turned on small fingers,
looped, linked, chained to
no finite end

I think of all
that binds, yet earth
again is broken to hold
those we hold
no more

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


My sister poets can be found here:

Liz
Andi
Laura 

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
















7 comments:

  1. Well, that broke me.
    This truly is by grace -- and is heartbreaking and lovely. Thanks for joining me and sharing something so grounding and true.

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  2. my goodness...this post by grace. amen. Those mothers and babies not letting go of each other...so difficult to think of the feeling of being ripped apart. This poem is beautiful. The pacing, the images, repetition all speaks of what we know but you don't even need to spell it out. Wow.

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  3. Beautiful. That first stanza made me burst into tears. The last stanza even more so.

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  4. I appreciated all the connections to string and thread and how they are woven into the fabric of nature and life. And then, I was undone by the last stanza. Beautiful poem.

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  5. Sometimes surrendering to time and words is enough :). Beautiful.

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  6. Grace did its work today and did it well. Paper, small fingers, infinite loops and links--that's the stanza that caught me. Thank you, Sara.

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