By Martin St-Amant [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D
fractured whale bone
whistle frost pining
my cry echoes through
blue blind caves
phase shift thunder cracks
ruptures liminal border
escaping meltwater
liberates me
you must remain
icily taciturn,
resolutely still
Here is the writer who with all his heart and soul, with his art, in anguish and travail offers nourishment – there is the reader who’ll have none of it, and if he wants, it’s only in passing, offhandedly, until the phone rings. Life’s trivia are your undoing. You are like a man who has challenged a dragon to a fight but will be yapped into a corner by a little dog. from Ferdydurke
I’m an Executive Director with a doctorate in education, a consultant, painter, photographer, composer, poet, and vocalist.
Language casts sheaves of reality upon the social body, stamping it and violently shaping it… Language as a whole gives everyone the same power of becoming an absolute subject through its exercise. But gender, an element of language, works upon this ontological fact to annul it as far as women are concerned and corresponds to a constant attempt to strip them of the most precious thing for a human being – subjectivity. Gender is an ontological impossibility because it tries to accomplish the division of Being. But Being is not divided. God or Man as being are One and whole. So what is this divided Being introduced into language through gender? It is an impossible Being, it is a Being that does not exist, an ontological joke, a conceptual maneuver to wrest from women what belongs to them by right: conceiving of oneself as a total subject through the exercise of language. The result of the imposition of gender, acting as a denial at the very moment when one speaks, is to deprive women of the authority of speech, and to force them to make their entrance in a crablike way, particularizing themselves and apologizing profusely. The result is to deny them any claim to the abstract, philosophical, political discourses that give shape to the social body. Gender then must be destroyed. The possibility of its destruction is given through the very exercise of language. For each time I say ‘I’ I reorganize the world from my point of view and through abstraction I lay claim to universality. This fact holds true for every locutor.
All the things that really matter to us are impossible…Writing poetry is impossible. I don’t know how to write a poem. A poem – there has to be a part of it that is not my own will; it comes from somewhere that I don’t know. There is so much that comes out of what we don’t know and what we don’t have any control over. I think that one of the only things we can learn as we get older is a certain humility. – from Doing the Impossible
Chromapoetica
I can hear the echoes of that blue blind caves ~ And how nature can remain icily & resolutely still ~ Like the “meltwater”, very unique take on prompt ~
Good to see you Anna and I hope you are well ~
Thank you, Grace. I’m happy to hear the poem was evocative for you!
Written with fine brush strokes, Anna! A master work!
How very kind of you to say, Walt! It’s nice to meet you.
You’re welcome. And the feeling is mutual, Anna.
This is fantastic!!!
Thank you!
That is beautiful! It would be something to hear the ice breaking up, cracking like thunder. Love how your words stir the senses.
Thank you, I did once witness glacial calving in Alaska and it was awe inspiring.
“whistle frost pining” is just plain gorgeous.
That was one of my favorite lines too.
Love your take on this…meltwater, whistle frost….so many senses called to play in this. good to see you! You have been missed.
Thank you, it’s lovely to be missed. It’s good to see you too!
You and your wordsmithing are always missed.
Hi Anna, nice to see you again. What a description of how the ices shift and break and create these ice blue caves…”you must remain/icily taciturn,/resolutely still”…love those last lines.
Nice to see you too! The last lines of such a short poem took the longest :).
how stunningly lyrical
How kind, Candy, I’m a bit rusty at writing poetry. I’ve had too much practice with academic writing lately.
I heard on the radio on gigantic ice-caves that keep the Antarctic ice in place… Somehow I connected the melting to global warming…
I was hoping it would work on multiple levels: environmental ethics, central conceit about love lost, and mythic tale but I may have included too much science. That never happens in my poetry :).
🙂 Being a scientist myself it has happened… never
I’m currently working on a green chemistry and social science research study so I have environmental issues on my mind.
Terrific imagery, but you didn’t melt!
Thanks, I did have meltwater but that may have been too much of a stretch :).
Gorgeously chilling!
That’s how I like my coldness – thanks for the visit!
This works on many levels. Metaphorically and calling us to consciousness of our world’s issues!
Thank you, it’s wonderful to meet you!
You’re welcome and nice to meet you! 🙂
Some wonderful imagery here, and this world’s metaphorically on at least a few levels.
Thank you, Bryan!
You have been more than missed, Anna. The intelligence of your poetics always thrilled me & challenged me to expand my consciousness. Your return, even for a moment, to the dVerse Pub, is both a blessing & a gift. This piece is wonderful. You had me at /fractured whale bone/.
Oh, Glenn, you always know how to make me smile! I hope to be around much more in a few weeks when I graduate from my master’s program. I have multiple doctoral applications in but have the summer off no matter what happens. Well, a vacation from school at least, not work and life :).
The images in this poem is so calming :’)
Thank you Srishti, lovely to meet you!
You too 🙂
enruptured by the sea, I like that! 🙂
It happens to me in real life so why not start a poem from that state :).
“bellwether song” is an intriguing thought to apply to nature – she does warn us often if we are only observant enough…
Thank you Margaret, I thought it was an interesting thought too.
This works on many levels. Deeper meaning to every line. Excellent work!
Thank you, kindly! I try to build in the layers but I don’t always succeed. I’m thrilled this time it worked for you.
But HOW to remain idly taciturn in the face of it?
I don’t know how either, but some people seem to.
A lovely poem, Anna. Meltwater is an excellent word.
Thank you, Misky. I thought so too, about meltwater. We’ve been having a blizzard so my mind went to the cold. I imagine the meltwater is just above freezing.
Powerfully layered poem, Anna–with that last stanza as an exclamation point.
Thank you for the visit, Victoria!
Ice cracks of iceberg
cavern long deep
frozen and worn..
Tunnel of vision
holds
until
human
melts real..:)