As Blue Fades
Which defines you best, a creaking lid or the light-turned flower?
The coffee’s steam or smoke wafting from your hand.
Your bowls color my shelves; I touch them daily.
Sound fills their bodies with memory.
The lighter’s click invokes your name.
And the stepping stones to nowhere, your current address.
If the moon could breathe would its breath flavor our nights?
I picture a separate one above your clouded island.
The dissipating blue in filtered light.
Above the coral. Above the waves and ocean floor far below.
Above the space your ashes should share.
Where the boats rise and fall, like chests, like the waning years.
Like a tide carrying me towards yesterday’s reef.
Or the black-tailed gull spinning in the updraft.
“As Blue Fades” first appeared in Underfoot in October 2017.
Those details, those associations–they fill the senses. (K)
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Thanks, Kerfe. This piece depends upon the unspoken and those associations. Plus a little imagination.
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Those connections are very real.
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They certainly were to me, but I often wonder how others feel (although I usually trust my subconscious).
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Beautiful imagery. I love this poem.
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Thank you very much!
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Beautiful! Especially poignant: “Where the boats rise and fall, like chests, like the waning years.”
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Thank you, Lynne!
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So dreamy!
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Thanks, Charlotte. There are some dream images here!
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This is such a haunting and melancholy piece. Love your use of images.
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Thanks, V.J. I was in a melancholy place when I wrote this…
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Great poetry, I love it 😍
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Thanks very much, Tracy!
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Another stirring of possibilities … I believe the moon does breathe (in its own way) and its essence (more than just the reflected light) definitely flavors my evenings. (Can’t speak for others perhaps less receptiv.)
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It certainly flavors my evenings!
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Thanks for the visual siesta Bob: Where the boats rise and fall, like chests, like the waning years. Mmmm 🙂
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I’m so pleased you like it!
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Even when you extend your line, never a word is wasted. i remember this poem quite well. The definition of ourselves from objects or phenomena has something of Panpsychism about it.
Also, is it just me or is WordPress quiet these days?
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Thanks, Daniel. WordPress, quiet? What do you mean?
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Dunno just feel like my traffic isn’t its normal volume. Maybe my posts are just crap haha.
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My traffic has been average – some good days, some not so good. And no, your posts haven’t been crap.
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Not just that, when i look for stuff to read, feels thin there too.
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Maybe our National Poetry Month is saturating, but not strengthening, the poetic air. Dunno.
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Or during the Winter people are sealed in & write & blog, then come Spring they are more likely to get out, have some experiences, collect & what not, then come Winter there is a host of new input to output through the inclement months. Dunno too.
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Creatively metaphoric…
cheers
chris
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Thanks, Chris.
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🐸🐸🐸You’re welcome!🐸🐸🐸🐸
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Beautiful poetry Robert.
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Much appreciated, Holly. Thank you.
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My pleasure
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I liked the many images as metaphors – and a touch of poignant nostalgia
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Images often speak more to me than words. Funny how that is.
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Your dreamy imagery, floated me back to the Pacific Islands, and evoked beautiful visions of Carole, you have a way of involving your readers in there own emotions, poetry at it’s best.
“I picture a separate one above your clouded island.
The dissipating blue in filtered light.
Above the coral. Above the waves and ocean floor far below.
Above the space your ashes should share.”
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Thanks, Ivor. I hope that readers will find their own meanings in the lines and images. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
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Yes, your openness to interpretation is sublimely superb.
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Wow!
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Thank you, Allyson!
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Delicate imagery and that sense of mystery – ‘And the stepping stones to nowhere, your current address.’
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Thanks, Dave. Those mysteries make life a tad more interesting…
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just plain elegant! I aspire to this level of writing…. beautiful, heartbreaking longing, resigned yet the conversation continues…. sublime
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You are very kind. Thank you!
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Love this
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Thank you!
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This is a gorgeous piece, Robrert!
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So pleased you find it so, Dianne. Thank you.
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Brilliant!! Your wonderful, stylistic imagery is inspiring!
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Thanks very much, Kenne!
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