Friday, September 3, 2010

MORNING HOUR


MORNING HOUR


what warbler’s watery
trilling could ever entice
me from this sovereign light
and lure me into the shadowy
world of a mysterious thicket -


where each wary step is
infused with whispered
petitions and every sharp
thorn brings forth visible
and agonizing stigmata

16 comments:

trooping with crows said...

Just what I needed this morning.
Love the last line. Don't know the right words to explain it, but I like how it's the stigmata given by nature. What we think of as God is everywhere and in everything.

Anonymous said...

I like the density of this one. Almost baroque to me.

Joseph Harker said...

There are some beautiful things happening with sound here... the kind of poem to be murmured in the woods just as the sun is coming up. Very nice. :)

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Merissa - thanks for your beautiful comment. That's just what "I" needed this morning! love..


Jason - many thanks for that great comment. I was hoping to achieve an elaborate style here.


Joseph, how nice! I think I might just do that very thing. Thank you. :)

Jinksy said...

Here's to mysterious thickets, if you find poems like this in them! :)

Karen said...

"what warbler's watery
trilling..."

What a lovely mouthful! I've had to read this orally a couple of times just to hear the play of words.

The question is essential here. What, indeed, is the enticement that lures you from "sovereign light" into the the dark and thorny thicket? The thorn and stigmata imagery add to the reverent hush of this whispered prayer.

Lovely. (Dark and deep.)

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Jinksy - Why, thank you very much! That is such a nice comment.


Karen - I always appreciate your insight. It's keen. And...If I ever do find the answer to that question, I'll post it here.

joaquin carvel said...

i read it out loud too - what a love affair with words this is!

from the soft, comforting sounds of the first stanza into the serpentine second, giving way to the final short, sharp syllables - you've wrapped the langauge of this around the heart of it so perfectly it's astonishing. this is poem to study.

Anonymous said...

Joaquin, I appreciate that so much. Poetry springs forth from emotions, so you have expressed it with clarity when you write -

"you've wrapped the langauge of this around the heart."

How lovely to phrase it in that way. Thank you.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Oh Great! Now I'm anonymous...that is just what I need. Blogger has been very weird all night!

@okieprof said...

Wordless, trying to comprehend, amazed. Encore.

Bradbury says poetry exercises muscels you don't often use. You exercise my soul and mind and spirit. Thanks.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Terry, thank you so much for the kind comment. I always appreciate your enthusiasm!

Ronald Rabenold said...

Love the sounds you used...I agree with HArker...thanks for the gift...thanks for the evocations...How's your school year going? Take care...Ron

Julie said...

Hi, Kaye. I am also in love with the sounds in this poem. Just one example is:

"...where each wary step is
infused with whispered
petitions"

How beautiful!

Stigmata in the thicket of thorns is excellent. I imagine a story with the question. Maybe the narrator is braving the thorns to watch (or help) a bird. Or maybe it is a symbolic and not a literal journey. Whatever the impulse, it is absolutely beautiful.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

Ronald, I appreciate your kind comment. Hope you have been well. I'll stop over at your site later on. Can't believe summer is at an end. School is going well. Thanks. :)


Julie - that's it exactly...who or what is the "warbler" and how far would one go into the unknown to help, literally or symbolically, especially if it is so painful? Thanks for the insightful observation. :)

Vesper said...

Kaye, I love this. To me it sounds like an ancient hexameter...