Tuesday, November 30, 2010

the unlikeliness of it all (i)


still and hardened
its seedhusks
feel like exoskeletons
brittle almost
and yet
inside
the softness of a cottony heart
beats with gossamer tenderness
waiting to burst its playful self
about the landscape of its knowing

15 comments:

Linda Sue said...

COOL! What are those things? I love your words and the pods and their guts! Those are awesome- great capture!

steven said...

linda sue it's milkweed! hovering and then suddenly exploding!!! more tomorrow. steven

Reya Mellicker said...

Do your poems just come out of you fully formed, or do you have to work with them?

Incredible sunset in the banner, too. Wow.

Tess Kincaid said...

I adored playing with milkweed pods when I was a girl. I haven't seen one in ages. They're magical.

Friko said...

those seedpods look like the most elegant birds.

Acornmoon said...

I agree with Friko, I thought they were birds.

♥ Boomer ♥ said...

I love how my mind opens up when I read your words.

steven said...

reya for the most part i write what tumbles out. word-for-word. the words are just there. sometimes i have to go back and look again and the words and the picture are oh-so-close but there's an unpolished edge, or a little light needs to be let in, or maybe the colours are too dark or off. so i tuck a word in or take a word away and sometimes whole phrases creep in and fit and sometimes i take whole phrases out. i don't know that i could tell you why it matters so much to me to have the whole piece feel "right" to me but it really does. and i know it often doesn't feel the same "right" to people who see it and read it as it does to me. so i've had the little wrestle over who this is for and even why i do it, many times. many, many times!! i still don't know the answer to all of that except that it's something to do with bringing goodness into the world. steven

Jo said...

Ah, if only all hearts beat "with gossamer tenderness."

I guess that, too, is part of the unlikeliness of it all.

Beautiful,Steven.

steven said...

tess they appear around the north-end of the city in little spaces and then i've seen them on bike rides in the distant countryside en masse!!!! steven

steven said...

friko with your eyes i get to see what i should've seen earlier. thankyou so much!!! steven

steven said...

valerie - yes! when you ride by them quickly at this late stage of their lives they have that quality about them. steven

steven said...

boomer thankyou. i love how my mind opens when i write them. steven

steven said...

jo floyd lucas. i do think that all hearts beat with gossamer tenderness.... the thing is that it's filtered through so much expectation, hope, wish, desire, and perception that it becomes harsh sometimes. noisy, cluttered, clumsy, wanton, rash, confused and even - messed up. so you're so good in seeing that it really is a big part of the unlikeliness of it all for that to glow through. steven

hope said...

It looks like a bird waiting to take flight...and I guess the "explosion" is flight, in a way. :)

As always, nicely done!