I can’t help thinking
that I would feel at home
in the closed off hives
under the pear trees,
in amber stillness,
in the warm wax cells -
there to live a life of
sweetness and daylight.
But – somehow, I survive
in a dim aging cellar,
where the spirits settle
among the oak barrels
that rise in the darkness
like communal hunchbacks,
awaiting clarification.
14 comments:
I love it, though I can't quite put my finger on why. Maybe it's the sense of belonging that it calls up in me.
Even the title of this appeals to me, with its sense of waiting, removed from the "warm wax cells" and given to the oaken casks where they still are waiting to become what they will be. I love the language of this - the "amber stillness" of the "closed off hives", the "sweetness and daylight" contrasting with the "dim aging cellar". Those last two lines really get me - what a wonderful description of the process...pending. Prost!
I wonder if mead might be brewing in those barrels. Sunshine for another day.
"Pending"...you're at it again, mind-stretching imagery, saying so much in so few words to disturb my status quo...ah, we're all so pending.
Thank you, poet.
Rachel, I am happy this had an impact on you. Thanks for stopping in and commenting.
Karen, so many times I feel like I am waiting, waiting...thank you so much for your nice comments.
Jason - you are so correct, sir. Honey wine, or mead, did inspire this poem. Yes - bottled sunshine for a bleak winter's afternoon. :D
Terry, "...we're all so pending." Ain't it the truth! Thank you.
"pending" - yes - been doing that myself lately. but not this beautifully.
i love the golden glow this seems surrounded by - the bees in their "warm wax" and oak barrels - and i get the feeling from the first line that it's a kind of tug-o-war between where home would be most. i suppose we all have our days under the pear trees and our days in the cellar - and too long in either brings the other to mind.
i also love how it's all mirrored - the light, motion, motives - the bees and the spirits. it's so subtle i almost missed it, but i think that's why it feels so complete. and brilliant.
An ‘aging cellar’ – yes, life feels like that sometimes… but then, one has the poetry, the art, a poem such as this one, so full, so beautiful, and it all becomes sweetness, it all becomes daylight…
I think most of us are "pending" all our lives - waiting for something other than what we already have.
Your poem describes this feeling so beautifully Kaye. As if it's human to spend our days pending.
There's such a calmness about this poem. It's just lovely to read.
Are you ever going to write something I don't like? Magic seems to flow write from your heart and straight through your fingers!
Joaquin - your comments validate my work - and me. Can't tell you how much that means to me. Thank you, my friend.
Vesper - you are so right...it is all good. I appreciate your continued support of my poetry. Your words are always sensitive and gratifying.
Margaret - we do spend a lot of time waiting, don't we. Sometimes, we don't even know for what we wait. But, Margaret, I do believe it is in that waiting, that the best part of life is lived. Thank you for your reflections. I am always glad to see you. :)
Rick - You've been here with me the longest - so to say that you have liked everything that I have posted means so much - thank you!
I think you write "unsettled" poems better than anyone I know, Kay. I love the shifts and rubs and shadow lives you're able to conjure in just a few short lines. There's something profoundly autumnal about this one to me. The sweet beauty of the day, the darkness to come.
Plus--"like communal hunchbacks, awaiting clarification." WOW. I can just see them there--dark, looming, like old question marks that nobody quite wants to see.
Your poetry is bottled wine AND honey! :)
Sarah, I do appreciate, very much, your thoughts on this poem and your feelings on my writing skills in general. I do tend to gravitate toward the unsettled. I feel I can express myself more artistically "there". Thanks, as always, for your great insight and lovely compliments.
Hey, Kaye. I get so excited when I read your work...and the work of a handful of other friends, some of whom I see here in the comments section...so I always make a fool out of myself in my drooling admiration. Just suffice it to say I am thrilled to "know" you and read your work.
I love this poem (yes, it's another favorite). I am pending, too. Dern, that line is awesome! I see the positive side of it, too. I am pending to grow and become.
Ditto on Karen's astute technical observations. Excellent poem!
Julie, can't thank you enough for that glowing endorsement! Truly, I do appreciate your wonderful enthusiasm for my poetry. And may I add, the feeling is so very mutual. I am always inspired by your stellar work! Thanks, again!
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