Saturday, November 2, 2013

Fires At The Mind Parted

[Normaphoto of an old Geo. doodle]
What is this age, air rarefied,
Reason or reconstruction?
Fire at the mind parted--
An old doodle on an old page
Startled at play, lit by
Light of other days-- still
Lingers, a flame of shadows and
Fingers, begun --and time
Has left its lines undone.
All possible selves gone on
Their separate ways: an old
Page in an old book.
It does no harm to look.

11 comments:

  1. Oh, wow.
    I've been looking at my old journals and sketchpads, high up in my bookshelf, for years, and never daring to open them. Too afraid to look.
    I love this poem, and the accompanying art. :)

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    1. Thanks Michelle. I guess we both took notes!

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  2. Your post reminded me the fact that one of my old computers ( a hand- me - down from our son) gave in. It broke from the hinges as I had opened and closed it several thousand times and my son must have done the same before he bought his new one. My pain is for the stories I had half written and never transfered them on a flash drive. It is a good thing that I started blogging. because good or bad I will have something that I wrote and others read.
    Your poem speaks for a lot of us. The art makes me realize that we may get several manicures, the fact remains that we will come to a point when we won't recognize our own hands except for the work they have done and left behind.
    THANKS!

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  3. On the contrary, it does great help to look. I am so grateful that you are allowing us into these spaces by posting to this workshop. Am going to reread, now.

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  4. And from your doodle a poem arose.
    I like them, both.
    Thanks for sharing, Geo.

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  5. Thanks all. I guess sketchbooks are a habit from when one has to work all the time and it's cathartic doodling images from mind and fleeting observation after getting through a day. I don't work at a job anymore but still doodle. Page from 1976 is helpful in a poem now, even though I worked 16-hour days that year. Still, this new generation has it rougher. Shop locally! Buy American.

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  6. You must be a very organized person, keeping hold of the journal since 1976. I wasn't even born till 1990. Of course, it need not be said, you are a great poet.

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  7. Hey Geo, "lit by light of other days" is a lovely phrase, I'd have been happy to have written it. Indigo

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    1. Thanks Indigo. I'd be happy to have thought of it originally but had this "oops" feeling about it. Sure enough, it's an echo of Thos. Moore: " Fond Memory brings the light of other days around me." I don't know where HE got it from. I won't change it --Moore hasn't complained.

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  8. I do shop locally and buy American made goods even if I have to pay a little more.

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  9. Another of yours, Geo., that shows the power of recollection and recall! Thanks!

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