stories

[CdnReader]

.

stories

inscribed on delicate
sheets of onionskin
transparent and ephemeral
inked with the vividness of
turquoise and ruby

built up
embellished with extremes
flakes of imagination...clumps of reality
a patchwork of pain and fatigue...joy and serenity
melted into familiar backgrounds
with curled-up corners and
joined together into
our separate truths

the stories
we tell ourselves
about who we are

.
cdn/26nov07
.

[firefangled]

I really like this Cdn, especially this:


.

a patchwork of pain and fatigue...joy and serenity
melted into familiar backgrounds
with curled-up corners and
joined together into
our separate truths

cdn/26nov07
.

It's good to see you posting again.

[blazeofglory]

.

stories

inscribed on delicate
sheets of onionskin
transparent and ephemeral
inked with the vividness of
turquoise and ruby

built up
embellished with extremes
flakes of imagination...clumps of reality
a patchwork of pain and fatigue...joy and serenity
melted into familiar backgrounds
with curled-up corners and
joined together into
our separate truths

the stories
we tell ourselves
about who we are

.
cdn/26nov07
.


These are really touchingly beautiful lines. I am startled to read them.

[CdnReader]

Oh, thank you SOO much, Fire and Blaze. My poetry is sparse these days, and inspiration is coming from unusual places (a strange mix of anthropology of religion; linguistic theory; medical ethnographies :lol: ) ... so I'm feeling a bit shaky about whether it "works" or not.

[ampoule]

.

stories

inscribed on delicate
sheets of onionskin
transparent and ephemeral
inked with the vividness of
turquoise and ruby

built up
embellished with extremes
flakes of imagination...clumps of reality
a patchwork of pain and fatigue...joy and serenity
melted into familiar backgrounds
with curled-up corners and
joined together into
our separate truths

the stories
we tell ourselves
about who we are

.
cdn/26nov07
.

I love the tactile nature of this. Oh those delicate sheets of onionskin. I remember typing on them and it seemed no matter what was typed it was beautiful because of the paper. Curled-up corners, nice.

[barbara0207]

Very clever the way you send the reader right back to the start to read it all over again - at least I had to in order to take it all in. You build up suspense - especially by the use of participle constructions - and only the last stanza, the (incomplete) main clause tells us what the participles were all about. As the main clause is incomplete, the whole poem gives one the impression of a random thought, just mentioned in passing, yet it is deep and true. Beautiful.

[CdnReader]

Thanks very much, Amp and Barbara. :)

[dibyendra]

I'm glad that you're back here in LitNet with a bunch of great poems. This poem really generated different sort of feelings. Really a touching poem Cdn !

[Caravaggio]

It made me think of the relationship between stories and storytelling.

with curled-up corners and


The curled up corners had a double meaning for me, curled up corners of a book, and having a book and being curled up in a corner reading it. Very nice :D.

[PrinceMyshkin]

.

stories

inscribed on delicate
sheets of onionskin
transparent and ephemeral
inked with the vividness of
turquoise and ruby

built up
embellished with extremes
flakes of imagination...clumps of reality
a patchwork of pain and fatigue...joy and serenity
melted into familiar backgrounds
with curled-up corners and
joined together into
our separate truths

the stories
we tell ourselves
about who we are

.
cdn/26nov07
.

I love this - all of it! But especially the way the ornate richness of the first verses is suddenly undercut - or I assume you mean it to be - by the skepticism of those final three lines, with the unavoidable implication that the truths - as opposite to the "stories" - is somewhat less rich, less colourful, or in colours more drab and decidedly not so pristine,

[CdnReader]

Catching up on some old emails this morning (I was without Internet for 6 weeks).... and realized I've missed replying to these.... :)

Thanks, Dibyendra. I hope to be back soon with a tad more regularity, but the needs of the holiday season and a large stack of essay-readings are still playing havoc with my free time.

Caravaggio, I love the double meaning of "curled-up" that you suggest. I didn't do it on purpose! :)

Prince, as always, my friend, thank you so much for your words. You often manage to find hidden meanings in my poetry that I didn't deliberately put there. I love it!