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Sunday Whirl…oh no, Sylvia Plath words…good thing I didn’t look first!

I copied the Whirl words from Brenda’s Saturday prompt from the Sunday Whirl FB page into a blank word document and didn’t look beyond the words. Good thing too because I would have known and been influenced by Lady Lazarus and would probably have written a more slash-your-wrists-by type of poem.

We all are a bit afraid of my slash-your-wrists-by poetry…come on…admit it. 🙂

sophie3 010 copy

charge, art, knocks, filaments, cell, sticky,
pearls, bone, linen, air, beware, skin, call

It’s all in here with the steamer trunks and canvases long covered with old linen and sticky, stale air.

You know it. This is the stuff you can feel. The stuff you understand.

Open a trunk and watch dust pinwheel thru the orange haze of a 30-watt bulb.

Close your eyes. There is life here.

A merciless call in every cell, every hair on your skin.

Take a chance. Lift away the linens. Look at it.

Once you believed that art would open a doorway to a beautiful world. A perfect world.

As it happened, you were watching yourself, studying your bone structure, staring at a full length mirror from across the room.

And your vision focused on reality.

Some place where disbelief and pearls of wisdom are two sides of a worthless coin.

And as you live knocking around in your tin-can armour while your passion withers away locked in those trunks, under that linen,

Beware of aging in that cold room where even God is chattering his teeth.

Breathe in. Feel the charge. Pull off the linen and exhale.

And look up in time to see the aged bulb flicker its last light and listen.

Just listen to the sound of the frail filaments tinkling in the clouded glass.

………….

Art: “Making the rounds” Mixed media on heavy Arches paper. (paper collage, pencils, pens, acrylics, chalk, nail polish, (yup, you can paint with nail polish if you want to) photographed with coins)

Comments: 12

  • January 20, 2013
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    Wow, just wow.

  • January 20, 2013
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    Amazing! Both the art and the poem– lovely, lovely! 🙂

  • January 20, 2013
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    You bring that room to life so vividly that I feel it around me still. 🙂 Masterfully done!

  • January 21, 2013
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    Thank you so much for this Veronica. The words and the image. The associative side of the brain function would have us living in that attic of memories more and more the older we get. Making art is always about going inside, leaning in to listen for what we have learned, but the feelings that accompany those memories can interfere with whatever art is being made. They can swamp us until that accumulated dust becomes quicksand. I love the image and the words you have put to that reality. And those last lines ring loud and true.

    Elizabeth
    http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/

  • January 21, 2013
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    A vivid write that is life affirming. We can get lost in the attic of memories. Well done, Veronica. I love the collage as well.

    Pamela

  • January 21, 2013
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    Very atmospheric, and good advice. I liked the last line, listening to the frail filaments… memories can be creative.

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