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
(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
Labels: poetry thursday
posted by Emily at 10:36 PM
18 Comments:
Great poem. I like the way you incorporated the lifted line and your imagery. "toenails growing unstoppable" -- very nice -- creepy and yet mundane!
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.
Nice. I like the images best.
This is so professional - a real poem! I love its strength.
I really enjoyed reading this - the opening is particularly striking.
"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.--
How you tie in Echos with multiplicity and repetition and as LHT's said, patterns. I could go on and on. Wonderful, wonderful poem.
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!
If I could make a clapping sound come out of your new Mac I would! This deserves a standing ovation. This should be published.
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"
Wow Em- fantastic poem! I'll never clip my toenails again without remembering it :) You are my favorite poet!
Love,
AMPC
Wow. Excellent! Like what you did with the line.
Wonderfully written!
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.
I must admit I'm falling in love with your writing.
Loved this part
the tides marking
each hour in shattered shells
Gorgeous!
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.
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?
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