Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Poetry Thursday: Echo

This week's Poetry Thursday challenge was to use the line from another Poetry Thursday participant. I chose a line from L. Monique, "there is certain holiness in repetition" @ http://lthepoet.wordpress.com from The Swallow Project: a guide to consuming obsessions

(I have just switched from using a PC to a Mac and am having trouble with hyperlinks. Can anyone help?)

Echo

there is certain holiness in repetition—

not just the liturgy circling a year
or the bent prayers laid
on new coffins

not just the constancy
of multiplication

or four legs
on a chair

the tides marking
each hour in shattered shells

toenails growing
unstoppable

these patterns, we remember

mark them in tallies
on the muscular wall
of our heart

count them like promises

this is what we live for

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18 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Great poem. I like the way you incorporated the lifted line and your imagery. "toenails growing unstoppable" -- very nice -- creepy and yet mundane!

11:01 PM  
Blogger Sasha said...

I really liked this. I was very attracted to this line myself as I am drawn to explorations of what is holy, but I was already well down the road with the lines I had chosen by the time I saw this one.

Anyhow, I love what you did with this, and the final line captured me.

this is what we live for

indeed.

11:46 PM  
Blogger Rethabile said...

Nice. I like the images best.

12:16 AM  
Blogger Kay Cooke said...

This is so professional - a real poem! I love its strength.

3:51 AM  
Blogger Crafty Green Poet said...

I really enjoyed reading this - the opening is particularly striking.

6:28 AM  
Blogger Left-handed Trees... said...

"the liturgy circling a year", the "constancy of multiplication or four legs on a chair", the tides, the toenails, the patterns--yes, you've captured them here. Beautiful.
--D.--

1:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How you tie in Echos with multiplicity and repetition and as LHT's said, patterns. I could go on and on. Wonderful, wonderful poem.

2:22 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

This is a great poem - so many of the things you call out as reptitions were not what I would have thought of - I loved being surprised by them. Also I love how the things you chose to highlight as repetitive are just the things "we live for." So well done!

2:48 PM  
Blogger Dennis said...

If I could make a clapping sound come out of your new Mac I would! This deserves a standing ovation. This should be published.

4:53 PM  
Blogger twilightspider said...

Wow. This poem really grabs me. The line breaks work perfectly, as do the repetitive images. I REALLY love this stanza:

"mark them in tallies
on the muscular wall
of our heart"

5:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow Em- fantastic poem! I'll never clip my toenails again without remembering it :) You are my favorite poet!
Love,
AMPC

5:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. Excellent! Like what you did with the line.

10:17 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wonderfully written!

12:11 AM  
Blogger Michelle said...

I love this poem. This stanza is truly great:
"not just the liturgy circling a year
or the bent prayers laid
on new coffins"

I'm linking you on my blog.

12:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I must admit I'm falling in love with your writing.

2:12 AM  
Blogger writerwoman said...

Loved this part

the tides marking
each hour in shattered shells

Gorgeous!

6:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When I saw that line, I immediately dismissed it as a line I couldn't do anything with. So it's fascinating to read your poem.

5:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I enjoy your poems. This one I especially liked - all this wonderful imagery put to the very familiar in a surreal setting.

this haiku-ish stanza,I thought, was humorous and clever:

Vicious scissors
tasting the iron power of
breaking infinity?

10:57 PM  

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