two poems, plucked

from the songs in my head

So long ago I can’t remember who said what, I heard a panel of poets on the radio. They were asked about the role of form — meter and rhyme, shape, numbered stanzas, counting syllables, etc. — and one of them said a form makes a container for what we can’t otherwise hold.

So… this year calls for forms, I think.

On my way to a pantoum, I tripped over an ekphrastic and ended up writing a cento (a poem made of lines from other poems, a poem that requires only that you work with shape and form) instead, which made me want to revisit the last one, which I think a lot of you haven’t seen.

That is how this week’s offering came to be. From the catalogues of Hozier and The National: two poems, constellations of words from mind-galaxies brighter than my own.

until next time, be well. be good to each other. sending love from here, always… 💚.

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HZR - a cento

the words hung above but never would form,
i would not ask and neither would you.
but i’m singing like a bird ‘bout it now:
it was you 
                       all the way down.

lord she found me just in time
in the lamp light i was free
trees deny themselves nothing 
that makes them grow

the best of the world in the palm of our hands,
i can recall something that’s gone from me.
it’s the only heaven i’ll be sent to - 
each time i’m shocked
                                         by the light.

lord she found me just in time
in the lamp light i was free
trees deny themselves 
nothing that makes them grow

//

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NTL - a cento

you were never much
of a New Yorker, it wasn’t 
in your eyes. what was it
you always said?
i’ll still feel the pull,

there will come a time 
i’ll want to know i was
here. you were careful,
but nothing is harmless

in the sunlight in the middle
of the street. what was it
you always said? 
we’re connected.
if we’re ever far apart,
you’ll still feel the pull.

the day i die, where will we
be? standing in the sunlight, 
in the middle of the street? 
drop down

out of the clouds, 
for a glass of gin.
what was it  
you always said? 
i missed you twenty nine years 

before i saw you? drop down,
i'm still waiting for you 
every night with ticker tape.
i am easy 
to find.

//

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Songs performed by Hozier: Shrike; Like Real People Do; I, Carrion (Icarian); Jackie and Wilson; Work Song; Blood Upon The Snow; Damage Gets Done; Movement; Take Me To Church; Wildflower and Barley

Songs performed by The National: I Am Easy To Find; The Pull of You; Weird Goodbyes; You Were A Kindness; Day I Die; Alien; Slow Show