ReadWritePoem February 11, 2008
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Could I Throw a Poem Away?
There is a sand sculpture
display
on Ocean Park Beach.
Architects have worked
all day
on these castles
made from millions
of grains
of sand and water.
They will last only
until
the next high tide.
I walk by them
and say
hello and goodbye.
12 comments:
Lovely. This poem works just right for the prompt. Reminds me of the Tibetan monks who paint elaborate mandalas in the sand. Life with it's experiences is like a dream. It exists in the present only. I think that's their message!
having lived on the atlantic coast for many years,, i have wondered this so many times... what inspires them??? i do not believe i would want my "art" to be so temporary..... this was a lovely poem on this theme....
Hey, you've made a good point here, why would these artists sacrifice their work to the next tide? And then there's the people who sculpture in ice...
There is this artist in Orissa in India who builts sculpture in the sand every evening when he is living there. He is known to have made sculptures of all the Hindu Gods as well as Christ.
Thanks for this post.
A common enough story in broken lines
i like hello and good bye being the same ...
Lovely demonstration of the impermanence of life, despite our endevouring to build something grand in the midst of it.
This poem washes in and out like the tide! It is a complete thought about an "incomplete" thing, or if not incomplete, impermanent. Very nice! And what a great theme for sacrifice.
Thanks for your comment on my bird poem! I like your notion of wounds and hammers. That describes it well, better than I even knew when I was writing it.
The cat...well, I figured a cat could identify a bird as well as I can!
this is lovely, it reminds me of Andy Goldsworthy an environmental artist whose work is left and then shaped by the environment. Transience, impermanence, having the grace to accept that you can't control things forever
A deceptively profound poem. The title asks the question and I think for myself, writing poetry rather than speaking it, I too seek permanence.
Beautiful poem which raises an important question. Certainly I couldn't write if I didn't think it permanent.
I guess it's hard for me to imagine that anyone would think their art was permanent-- in terms of the lifetime of the world. To me, sand art and other ephemera just represent a recognition of that truth.
What a terrific take on the prompt. I'm so glad you brought this out for us.
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