May 16, 2018

palimpsest



i am a basket holding a history.
i am a jumble of tales.
i am a princess in a tower, who loves each stone.
i am a princess in a tower, who longs for freedom.
i am the dragon who placed her there.
i am the knight who seeks to free her, or claim her.
i am a silenced sister frantically spinning nettles.
i am a swan calling over reed-fringed seas.
i am a fox guarding her kits.
i am snow falling softly on fields.
i am small leaves that may heal or poison.
i am a fragment of song that sticks in the mind.
i am breakage and mending.
i am not what you thought.
i am not what i thought.
i am a flower that blooms only at night.
i am the moon that changes, changes.
i am the talisman that kept my ancestors safe.
i am the smoke of the ones who burned.
i am the jewel that scars the hand that holds it.
i am a mat at the door, covered in shoe-prints.
i am a cat curled by the fire.
i am ancient oceans, my cells remember them.
i am a harpy.
i am a hearth-keeper.
i am the light of distant stars.
i am a creature of mud.
i am a step in the dance of life.
i am a thread-snipper.
i am a well that echoes with voices.
i am a map that i cannot read.
i am a woman who sleeps among thorns.
i am, i am, i am,
endlessly turning...




6 comments:

  1. this is wonderful. what a beautiful spirit you have.

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  2. "i am not what you thought.
    i am not what i thought."

    These lines are almost the exact centerpiece of this poem and they sum up so much of what I feel about myself, and also about everyone else. I can't rightly explain what I mean, but you have captured it. I am--and you are--so much more, ever-shifting, with constancy, all that was, and all that will be. Thank you for using your gift and putting it into singing words. Your poetry rings like a bell. For "Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason." (Novalis)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *blushes*

      i always have felt particularly un-pin-down-able! i couldn't "brand" myself if i tried...too many contradictory tendencies...

      Delete

ashes, ashes...

some of the worst days come when we are nostalgic about something we never really had: true love, certainty, time... our memories hold false...