climbing
a woman precedes me up the long rope.
her dangling braids the color of rain.
maybe i should have had braids.
maybe i should have kept the body i started,
slim and possible as a boy's bone.
maybe i should have wanted less.
maybe i should have ignored the bowl in me
burning to be filled.
maybe i should have wanted less.
the woman passes the notch in the rope
marked Sixty. I rise toward it, struggling,
hand over hungry hand.
Lucille Clifton
--------------------------------------------
Collage
“Self Transformation”
I used to be
vanilla ice cream.
“It’s all about the choices we make”
Now I pour
maple syrup
and sprinkle
walnuts on it.
“Self Preservation”
I wrote
my first poem
at age 40.
“Real Satisfaction”
When no one
was looking
I’d hug the books
I was writing
my poems in.
“Books”
Today I have 22 books
of poetry
sitting on a shelf
like smiling soldiers
protecting the new
me.
“Time is a created thing. To say ‘I don’t have time’
is to say, ‘I don’t want to.’”
After the kids
and husband
were asleep
I’d sit in the sunshine
of a nightlight
writing.
“Pack your own parachute”
Poetry became my parachute
as I fell from the airplane
of a planned life.
“Inspiration pulled from your life”
Like taffy
I stretched it
molded it
transformed it
until it was palatable.
“Reading”
used to help me escape
into someone else’s life.
Through poetry I escape
into my own.
“Rewarding, very, very, very rewarding”
(big smile)
“The thrill of the new”
My taste buds came alive
with all the new flavors
that flowed through
my pencil.
“Clear your mind of can’t”
Yes. Yes. Yes!
“Each of us has the opportunity to change and grow
until our very last breath. Happy creating.”
I’ve been pregnant
with poems
and they just keep
being born.
“Here’s to starting again”
and again, and again
Lady Liberty stamp
That’s me
“ME”
~Linda Jacobs
November 8, 2007
6 comments:
used to help me escape
into someone else’s life.
Through poetry I escape
into my own.
Love this!
Wonderful. The collage is full of color and life, the poem full of answers and color! Great job! Resonates with me!
BTW, I inadvertently deleted your comment from my blog the other day and that action appears to be FINAL! There was no getting it back...!
Hey, I love found poems, but this is so much more than that - I think you are truely pregnant with poems - long may they keep being born.
thanks for reading this; I know it's kind of long.
Jo, thank you for picking up on that comment about how I feel about poetry.
Tumblewords, I wasn't sure this would work; it does seem kind of jerky. glad you could get something out of it.
Don't worry about that deletion; it probably wasn't earth-shaking, anyway!
Andy, Amazing how it honestly feels that way! Thanks.
A joyous & lyrical celebration of the private liberation that writing a poem can bring.
Ya know Linda, I like the honesty and clarity in this piece. Thx. I really had not captured the sense of Clifton's "Climbing" before I had Speakonia Sam read your "Collage" to me, I am impressed by what you have to say, "pregnant with poems... again, &..."
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