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!
Poetry is not for wimps Geo:) I like the poem. It says volumes about the differences in mental processes.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rick. So much of thought can be organized in poetry but it's tough to be patient with one's self.
DeleteVice 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.
ReplyDeleteGar look like they were designed for precision chewing. Amazing creatures.
DeleteMy first reaction was what a wonderful love poem to your wife ... yes, it's about both of you, but that's love.
ReplyDeleteWhen 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.
O Jenny, that's the hardest work in poetry: keeping meaning and emotion intact while editing an idea down toward the irreducible.
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteTake care, Geo.
Thanks dear Robyn! Wouldn't being unfocused on one thing be a sort of focus?
DeleteYou poured ocean in a glass so amazingly
ReplyDeleteThank you, Baili. Most kind.
DeleteYes, 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.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Munir. Sometimes it's fun to look back at childhood and the associations we made between objects.
Delete