We speak of creation

[PrinceMyshkin]

We speak of creation
as if it were a moment in time
before which, nothing.

But suppose it were a pause,
a breath held lightly
in wonder or
a dancer lighting on the toes
of one foot

before she takes the next
far more audacious leap.






Jerry Newman © 07

[Virgil]

Very nice Prince. Short, simple, but as pretty as a crystal.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Very nice Prince. Short, simple, but as pretty as a crystal.

Happy you think so and appreciate you're saying it. I've been moving more & more towards a spare, epigrammatic form but I sometimes feel a bit out of place here where there are so many who are talented at the more image-rich sort of poetry.

[byquist]

You caught something special there!

[ampoule]

Wonderful!!

[symphony]

We speak of creation
as if it were a moment in time
before which, nothing.

But suppose it were a pause,
a breath held lightly
in wonder or
a dancer lighting on the toes
of one foot

before she takes the next
far more audacious leap.






Jerry Newman © 07

...Or, perhaps, a knight
who has just unleashed a sword,
eyes nitid in seething faith
in a Cause,
waiting
breathless,
to even slaughter
the One who’s put him in the field…


Uhm...forgive me for this irrelevant (i think...) bit, couldnt resist. I was breathless while reading ur poem, Prince, now it could be the wintry breeze or the excellence in this, i'd never know! But wow!

[PrinceMyshkin]

...Or, perhaps, a knight
who has just unleashed a sword,
eyes nitid in seething faith
in a Cause,
waiting
breathless,
to even slaughter
the One who’s put him in the field…


Uhm...forgive me for this irrelevant (i think...) bit, couldnt resist. I was breathless while reading ur poem, Prince, now it could be the wintry breeze or the excellence in this, i'd never know! But wow!

Or perhaps
a youthful princess in training
in Bangladesh
furiously denying
praise
for her beauty,
intelligence
and steadfastness of heart!

[motherhubbard]

that was wonderful Jerry. You know I'm always a sucker a poem with a dancer!

[symphony]

Or perhaps
a youthful princess in training
in Bangladesh
furiously denying
praise
for her beauty,
intelligence
and steadfastness of heart!

Hey! I never deny praises. Not until they're anything a yard close to "cute", that is. :cool: Never said no to people calling me The Creation heh. :lol:

[AwayAloneAlast]

Myshkin (wonderful name, by the way :D),

I really liked this poem! It is simple, short, and sublime. I rarely compliment poems I see unless they really stand out, and yours most certainly does!

[CdnReader]

We speak of creation
as if it were a moment in time
before which, nothing.

But suppose it were a pause,
a breath held lightly
in wonder or
a dancer lighting on the toes
of one foot

before she takes the next
far more audacious leap.






Jerry Newman © 07

Most fabulous, my friend. Thanks! :)

[PrinceMyshkin]

that was wonderful Jerry. You know I'm always a sucker a poem with a dancer!

Ah, then here for you, my lovely friend,
is a festive, floral ensemble
of brightly attired, limber dancers
performing their pirouettes, their
grand battements, tours fouettas...

Here is the bravest of chorines,
she with an aching knee and
even more aching heart
who performs her Grand adage
the way you or I might bend
to pick up some note
from a soon-to-be former lover
who had slid it through the mail slot
and quickly disappeared. Or she
who dreamed once of coming to the fore
but knows, now, that she will never
be more than one of a number.

And here are
Nina Ananiashvili, Cynthia Gregory, Avdotia Istomina,
Karen Kain, Galina Mezentseva and of course
Anna Pavlova. Are they mere mortals
or flowers that have got twisted
into human shape? Or are they melodies
embodied in slender arms and muscular
but graceful legs?


Myshkin (wonderful name, by the way :D),

I really liked this poem! It is simple, short, and sublime. I rarely compliment poems I see unless they really stand out, and yours most certainly does!

Excuse me looking a gift horse in the mouth but did you write this before or AFTER you read my entirely heartfelt encomium to "Bloom, frail flower" - which I read and praised before I read your appreciation of my more humble poem.

Thanks.

[motherhubbard]

how lovely Jerry

They are melodies a shimmer in the blue spot light
With miles to go across that narrow stage
They are a moment caught for eternity
In the twinkling of some imagined eye

The music starts the drumming of their hearts
And plays on in their bodies long after final curtain
Causing them to pause and sway even when they are old
With stiff backs, stiff knees and toes pointing out

They gave life to a character and left part of themselves behind
A tiny piece of soul lost, but something else gained
And forever that pa de dux plays on in their mind
as they glide across the stage in the bright spot light

[AwayAloneAlast]

Excuse me looking a gift horse in the mouth but did you write this before or AFTER you read my entirely heartfelt encomium to "Bloom, frail flower" - which I read and praised before I read your appreciation of my more humble poem.

Thanks.

Before, sir.

[firefangled]

This is on of those china tea cups of such fine glass that they are translucent.

[firefangled]

how lovely Jerry

They are melodies a shimmer in the blue spot light
With miles to go across that narrow stage
They are a moment caught for eternity
In the twinkling of some imagined eye

The music starts the drumming of their hearts
And plays on in their bodies long after final curtain
Causing them to pause and sway even when they are old
With stiff backs, stiff knees and toes pointing out

They gave life to a character and left part of themselves behind
A tiny piece of soul lost, but something else gained
And forever that pa de dux plays on in their mind
as they glide across the stage in the bright spot light

MH, I miss your poems.

[AuntShecky]

The brevity and the elegance of this piece are admirable.
Echoes of the first half of section V of "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" > intentional?

[PrinceMyshkin]

The brevity and the elegance of this piece are admirable.

This is very deeply appreciated!


Echoes of the first half of section V of "Ode on Intimations of Immortality" > intentional?

Not since I joined Wordsworthians Anonymous! I've been dry now for decades!

[schadenfreude]

We speak of creation
as if it were a moment in time
before which, nothing.

But suppose it were a pause,
a breath held lightly
in wonder or
a dancer lighting on the toes
of one foot

before she takes the next
far more audacious leap.






Jerry Newman © 07

Fantastic! Short and simple, yet so complete.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Fantastic! Short and simple, yet so complete.

Many thanks - except your remark provokes me to think: nothing is ever complete; nothing is ever finished; little enough (except perhaps the human misery project) has ever been truly begun!

What a terrible pseudonym for you to have chosen! I wonder however if there is a contrary German word that means "the unhappiness one feels at others' joy"?

[Scube]

Your creation poem is captivating . . . wonderful. I am a student of open forms of poetry and have yet to attempt, having come from the old school of rhyme and meter.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Your creation poem is captivating . . . wonderful. I am a student of open forms of poetry and have yet to attempt, having come from the old school of rhyme and meter.

You may have come from that school but the evidence thus far is that you never apply what you have learned by rote. I'm proud and happy when I can employ rhyme & meter, which I do, as in the following, when I want to be dealing in things that seem to be fixed or inexorable:



How poor we are,
when everything that's meant to
carries us as far,
when c*nt, pr*ck, heart and mind
work exactly as designed.

The only good lesson is the one
we can't, yet must, revise.
The only things we ever learn
are by surprise.


Hoping no one will be offended by the crude Anglo-Saxonisms: nothing else would have done, I felt, to refer to those articles when they are thought of or employed in so blunt a manner.

[Scube]

Awesome!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Coming up to my 2,000th post
I wonder if I’ll have anything to say
worth more than any of the previous
1,999!