Linking with Shay's Word Garden Word List # 12 (Richard Brautigan)
"My poems are love-drunk letters to the universe".
~Terri Guillemets
How many lanterns does it take to light the truest way?
As many as a poem can hold
As many as it takes!
A poem is like candles that can burn no matter how high the
wind
It moves and makes the impossible
like Frankenstein and wonder
possible again
for the creation of a poem is like making wool without a spinning
wheel
it brings to light beauty from soot and embers
poetry is a whisper that can be heard in the loudest place
it is letters that always arrive with no postage ever paid
we dig into the trenches fierce like lions yet with the ink of grace
searching for a million strangers and yet just one familiar face
for poets and their poetry are explorers of the soul
they reach out toward the farthest mysteries
and yet dig even deep inward for their own
so the question is, how many lanterns does it take to light the truest way?
the answer is, as many as a poem can hold
as many as it takes!
I KNEW as soon as I put it on the list, that you'd go with the lanterns! I KNEW it! :-D A very pretty poem with an exalted view of us ink-stained wretches. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLOL you know me too well Shay. I was doing good to get something out there at all. Wretches?....Noooooooo we are magnificent ponderers! It is the poems that are exalted, not necessarily the poets, although most poets I personally know are pretty awesome! Like one with a word list. :-))
DeleteCarrie, you worked hard on this poem, I can tell. Hard to put the pieces together to say what you want it to say. I liked your what goes into the structure to make it a Poem, explaining by your (pretty much intro) lines, "creation of a poem ..." is ... Also the "Poetry is" section, with my catching on at 'is' "poetry is a whisper that can be heard in the loudest place..."
DeleteLanterns? I skimmed over the list and missed that. Not that I'd have used it but I have four lanterns, one we bought for hurricane use, a Coleman kerosene, back in the 1970's, and three little battery LED lamp lights about five years old. We have had them ready but they were not needed. Anyway putting them in a poem would be hard for me. A lamplighter maybe.
Again, I enjoyed my reads here, thank you.
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The LED lanterns were $16 at Academy Sportings Goods back then. Also each was a different color.
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$16 for all three.
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What a delight! The first three lines lead me on a journey .. one I thoroughly enjoyed. Great way to use those words, Lady.
ReplyDeleteFluid and with more than a little mysticism about it.
ReplyDeleteVery lovely concepts here, Carrie. A poem may be like making wool without a spinning wheel, but I think we do pretty well at using the wheel of our hearts.
ReplyDeleteThis is gorgeous: “we dig into the trenches fierce like lions yet with the ink of grace”
ReplyDelete"it is letters that always arrive with no postage ever paid"
ReplyDeletei like that line, really hits on the transcendental nature of verse, the idea that poetry is everywhere and in everything. very well said