Love Poem
When that other friend said
I should just get over you,
Perseus,
you said “He's never known love.
He doesn't know what he's talking about.”
How is it you were the one to comfort me?
You said it really was that good.
You quoted Newton's third law of motion:
“Every action has it's
equal and opposite reaction.”
Twenty eight years later
I am standing on the top
of a mountain of shale
looking down into an
abandoned quarry.
The sun glints off the distant mirror
of an ice cold bottomless lake.
Occasional chipped rocks slide
skittering toward brackish water
through the careless empty air.
Signs are posted:
No Swimming.
..........-Andromeda Jazmon
The Monday Poetry Stretch at Miss Rumphius this week was "to write a love poem without explicit words of love—no terms of adoration or endearment." Check out all the other entries here.
Today's Friday Poetry round up is Big A, Little a today. If you are posting poetry or looking to read some go ahead over and jump in!
11 comments:
That Perseus! A man of action, if there ever was one. I like how your poem weaves its way around, back to your beautiful photo at the top.
Thanks Sara! I couldn't find one of my own photos that fits the image of the quarry that I have in my memory, from seeing so many as a kid. I just added some links to sites that describe quarries better.
And my real life Perseus wasn't as successful fighting the monsters as the mythical one, unfortunately.
28 years later. It's amazing what the heart remembers, isn't it? I love the last stanza. I can picture myself there with you.
Here's the link to this week's results.
http://missrumphiuseffect.blogspot.com/2009/02/poetry-stretch-results-love-poems.html
Oh, this is so lovely and sad.
Every time I read this I get more and more from it - it keeps pulling me back to read it one more time :)
Wow, pulling that back to the quarry, given Andromeda's history with being chained to rocks and all, is brilliant.
*sigh*
It still strikes me so sadly, though. Every action has its equal and opposite reaction -- which means that though Perseus and Andromeda are supposed to be together -- must they also always be on the opposite sides of the equation?
Tanita I don't know how that happened in this poem. Perseus is really what I called him way back when. He named himself that in his first love poems to me, in fact. (There is a string of adolescent love poems between us from those days.) The really sad part is that the mythical Perseus rescued Andromeda and brought her home with him after defeating all the monsters. He lived with her for the rest of their lives and they raised six children. My Perseus was defeated by his monsters and I had to struggle on without him. Which I did. Like Harriet the Spy says, "I have a nice life. With or without Old Golly, I have a nice life."
The quarry image came to me because of the depth of the loss - the empty air and the deep gash of pain still present. I saw myself on top of the slag pile after years of determined climbing. Now looking down on that cavity but unwilling to plum it's depths or swim in the murk.
How did they fit together in a poem? Mystery. Serendipity.
Wowza - nicely done, Andi!
Cloudscome,
Your poem is both sad and beautiful. As Tricia said--it is amazing what the heart remembers.
Cloudscome,
What a lovely and touching poem. I loved the links.
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