Friday, August 04, 2006

This is a Poem that Breathes


Of being alive, of luminous eyes
Of girls and boys, quick threads of blood,
Bodies of lovers moving
With a surfeit of fevers
Or holding their desperate aloneness
Like violets in a bowl.

This is a poem then
For wild beasts lying together,
For trees, for the laughter
Of my sons, for their gradually
Lengthening shadows flying
In new suits, new shoes,
For their quicksilver bodies and
Their breath like snow.

This is a poem of living
By leaps or dying by degrees.
Of rotting under the sun or lifting
Instead into a pulsation of light
Without quarrels borders checkpoints
Generals gunpowder causes flags
Or blood in the streets, a poem
Of morning devouring hunger and the end
Of the slaughter of innocents.

Only children dancing,
Lovers inexhaustibly fused,
Multitudes hallowed as doves.

11 comments:

mareymercy said...

Your poetry always speaks to me. I love your gift with language, just the right phrase, and the rhythms you invoke. My favorite bits:

quick threads of blood,

Or holding their desperate aloneness
Like violets in a bowl.

breath like snow.

Lovers inexhaustibly fused,
Multitudes hallowed as doves.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Thanks! I am glad you like my stuff, as I like yours!

Kay Cooke said...

Of my sons, for their gradually
Lengthening shadows flying
In new suits, new shoes,
For their quicksilver bodies and
Their breath like snow.

I can relate to that! You've put it so beautifully.

This is beautiful writing - thanks!

Tammy Brierly said...

Powerful and beautiful! You have such a gift. I loved this

"This is a poem of living
By leaps or dying by degrees"

Tina said...

Oh wow, this is powerful. I love this: "In new suits, new shoes,/For their quicksilver bodies and/Their breath like snow." It's like I could picture it, the clean lines of their clothes and such in my head.

Aww man, gorgeous. :)

k said...

Yes. Wonderful pictures drawn with words.

January said...

I agree with Twitches.

Love this line: "Or holding their desperate aloneness
Like violets in a bowl"

Love love love it!

wendy said...

Oh Pepek, this is beautiful. violets in a bowl,lengthening shadows, living by leaps..god. I loved this poem.

Pris said...

lovely, pepe! And did you take that wonderful photo, too??

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Nope. I am the kind of photographer that cuts people's heads off in photos. (But my husband gave me a digital camera for my birthday, so I am trying to be better).

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

Thanks y'all for coming by and for your comments.