Saturday, March 11, 2017

Quantum Wave Adjustment Kit



Being you is
Barefoot at 
Night rejoicing
Where beach fires
Compose wishes.
Being me is
Years ago noticing
How pliers
Look like fishes.







I have tinkered with this poem a long time. Posted it most recently seven years ago  and noticed it got shorter every time I wrote it. So this time I abandoned meter, which was getting troublesome, in favor of an illustration. Went out to the pumphouse and fetched my vicegrips, which are close enough to pliers to serve ably in a Quantum Wave Adjustment Kit. It also needed some anatomical labels, which meant attempting a webcam Geodoodle. Poetry is hard work!

12 comments:

  1. Poetry is not for wimps Geo:) I like the poem. It says volumes about the differences in mental processes.

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    1. Thanks, Rick. So much of thought can be organized in poetry but it's tough to be patient with one's self.

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  2. Vice grips look much more like a fish than regular pliers although needle-nose pliers do resemble gar a bit. I really like the poem. It's one of your best.

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    1. Gar look like they were designed for precision chewing. Amazing creatures.

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  3. My first reaction was what a wonderful love poem to your wife ... yes, it's about both of you, but that's love.

    When I try to edit my writing for length, I seem to lose all the details that make it mine. But you have condensed your thoughts into a rich essence of meaning here (I did read the one longer version to which you linked). I will have to ponder that enigma for awhile.

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    1. O Jenny, that's the hardest work in poetry: keeping meaning and emotion intact while editing an idea down toward the irreducible.

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  4. I think the poem works well as a short one, and the pliers look like fishes or some type of reptile or even dinosaur. I suppose being me means being unfocused on one thing for any length of time.
    Take care, Geo.

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    1. Thanks dear Robyn! Wouldn't being unfocused on one thing be a sort of focus?

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  5. You poured ocean in a glass so amazingly

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  6. Yes, Poetry is hard work. You did a good job of writing a poem on a handy tool.I would never be able to write a poem on something like a pair of pliers.

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    1. Thanks, Munir. Sometimes it's fun to look back at childhood and the associations we made between objects.

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