There was a slow harvest
that year, and slow
trysts, like long drops of ice,
reminiscent of all the color,
the variation of love.
"It's too monotonous to love,"
you said once, "the harvest
lacks Autumn color."
If only hands ran as slow
as hearts--look, the ice
you melted, it all drops.
I've searched for the sea built of those drops,
I've searched for a vessel, planks of honest love,
but fiery hearts must burn; a good harvest,
like intentions, cannot bear to ice.
Better to die spitefully than slow;
better to spark high than drain color
at the thought of waiting, to color
the smooth ground with wrinkling drops
and watch the earth bloom slow,
like a memory of love,
yielding to the mind a harvest
when, to the eyes, there was ground and ice.
Inevitably, invariably: the ice
blows in to color
my perceptions, still my hands at harvest,
make me watch as Time drops
my accusations of love
against my heart. Dying is slow,
just as waking is slow
when the corners of the dream ice
over and the tunnel closes. Love
must be the last color
seen when all else drops.
If so, let death harvest.
When death comes, how slow! Its harvest
will be edge-ice, the husk that drops
the spirit wakened to love, asleep to dream of living color.
It still blows my mind that you wrote a comprehensible sestina. And beyond that, a freaking good one. Honestly. If it wasn't broken up into lines, you'd barely notice the repeating words.
ReplyDeleteI love your final stanza, as well as
"If only hands ran as slow as hearts"
and
"Dying is slow,
just as waking is slow
when the corners of the dream ice
over and the tunnel closes. Love
must be the last color
seen when all else drops."
Either I'm incredibly slow and terrible at reading poetry, or, despite bias, I was right when I said your poetry is the kinda that can be read over and over and each reading will yield new, previously undiscovered details as well as a deeper understanding of what it's saying.
Your words are so rich. That's probably one of the most beautiful and difficult things about reading this poem. There's an entire poem in the just the phrase "asleep to dream of living color"
Don't get complacent. Keep writing like crazy and try to improve (not that I actually think you would get complacent)
but give yourself a secret pat on the back for me.