Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Poetry Can Fill an Empty Vase,

 


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Linking with Shay's Word Garden Word List --Joy School

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I am a poet and a mystery,
Each day myself as in a glass I see:
Creator and created fused in one,
Sun that makes night and night that drinks the sun.
~John Gould Fletcher

 

Certain poems are sharp like an iceberg

 floating on an evaporated sea,

whispering sounds of the ocean from a conch shell

with a message as loud as a scream.

They take us somewhere far yet close as home

 with the soft touch of a special lover,

then tell us how to fix our deepest ache,

 like a devoted mother.

They conjure up my brother’s hardest punch

or my father’s long-lost voice.

Some poems carry the whole weight of lifetimes,

yet the lightness of a single choice.

A poem can transfix or move us,

it can narrow, or expand the views we hold;

give us spring’s spray of flowers

 in the midst of winter’s dismal cold.

They stir the cauldron of memory,

like a witch crafting a certain spell,

leading us to forgotten secrets

that we never planned to tell.

Then they open us like a wrapped-up gift

with a remembrance made brand new,

again, witnessing the birth of grandchildren

and the graveside service that came too soon.

I keep an empty vase in the kitchen

that once held the flowers for your grave.

Poetry has the power to place it back in my hands

holding the newness of grief, I knew that day.


8 comments:

  1. The empty vase, those closing lines, really speak to me, Carrie.

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  2. What a vivid and emotive poem - so beautifully expressed and expertly crafted. Poetry will indeed fill an empty vase - Jae

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  3. Indeed, writing can conjure up anything--any person, place, emotion, or message, and that is the magic of it!

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  4. Poetry can conjure so many things as you so beautifully and poetically expressed.
    Your artistic, poetic, expression is one I am grateful to read.

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  5. A pure pleasure to read, Carrie, the purest, because it's words bring all the power of poetry to bear upon our hearts. Beautiful.

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  6. Poetry is the cauldron of emotion and experience, and each poet stirs up something unique to them from that mix. I especially like "...they open us like a wrapped-up gift.." or perhaps, like an autopsy, sometimes. This is a powerful and moving piece Carrie.

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  7. I feel a calm, introspective vibe when I sit down to write ... that can certainly morph into frustration if 'nothing comes.' I love how you described 'YOU'.

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  8. You have really shown all that poetry can do in such a wonderful way! Beautiful.

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