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Post by shayepoet on Oct 16, 2008 2:23:31 GMT 2
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evie
New Member
Posts: 14
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Post by evie on Nov 14, 2008 19:50:00 GMT 2
on suffering
hold yourself together as you must
hands shielding, binding flesh to bone
shutter yourself against the shuddering blow
but leave one eye, ear uncovered
a thin corner of mouth unblocked
for your lamentations, a way out
for what heals, a way in
—after Käthe Kollwitz’s Lamentation
Evie Shockley November 14, 2008
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Post by batsword on Nov 15, 2008 3:43:32 GMT 2
liked this, thankyou.
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Post by batsword on Nov 15, 2008 4:03:27 GMT 2
on the roadside collateral damage day in, day out
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lvpd
New Member
Posts: 13
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Post by lvpd on Nov 16, 2008 0:00:14 GMT 2
Evie, "batsword" - thank you for your poems! One of the things I love about ekphrastic poems is how multiple our responses to the same stimuli are....
Both of your poems pay attention to shape and rhythm, "batsword"' working out of the haiku tradition, and Evie, with your diminishing lines reflecting both loss and distillation. So I attempted a syllabic poem reflecting the five fingers of the two hands.
THE HANDS
hold the whole of what is there, what is gone – fingers ten conduits for all they once touched, all they still can feel.
No need to open the eyes nor to speak. No need even for gesture or movement – no more to be said.
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Post by batsword on Nov 16, 2008 1:08:42 GMT 2
g'day lvpd
Thanks for this poem. This is a disturbing image. I find it interesting to work on these differing responses. Here's an acrostic response.
Lamentation
Lives Assassins Martyrs
Evil Nameless Tristesse And Terror
In Our Name
~~~
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evie
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Posts: 14
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Post by evie on Nov 17, 2008 18:37:52 GMT 2
"lvpd" (Lois, yes?),
I also found it interesting that all the poems (before the most recent, the acrostic) were using counting constraints. The form my poem takes is called the hay(na)ku, and it is, you might say, a Filipino-American form devised by Wom-Po's own Eileen Tabios. (Check out her page in the Filipina Poets Exhibit here in the Fest!) To state the obvious, it's a 3-line stanza in which the first line has 3 words, the second line 2, and the third line 1. This order can be reversed, actually, and the form works for any number of stanzas, from 1 to infinity! : ) I wanted to mention this because it's a great form to work in and hope others reading here will give it a try!
I wonder if there's something about the sculpture's successful expression of deep grief that pushed us all to numbers-based form -- some "objective" container for the pain? I know "batsword" is posting haiku and tankas for most of the art works in the Challenge, but for all three of us to go there in response to "Lamentation" seems significant, to some small degree...
Peace, Evie
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lvpd
New Member
Posts: 13
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Post by lvpd on Nov 17, 2008 23:14:30 GMT 2
Oh! Thanks for this formal information - new to me... and very interesting. It is also intriguing to ponder underlying reasons for our responding with these constraints.... perhaps also related to the "holding" of the sculpture, the sense of attempted containment (well, I guess this is what you were saying, also).
- lvpd (Lisken)
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evie
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Posts: 14
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Post by evie on Nov 21, 2008 19:23:11 GMT 2
We're totally on the same page, Lisken! (Sorry for mistaking your initials for the wrong person!) Thanks --
Evie
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