The body heals by degrees,
by flashing sunwise whorls and spirals.
The ocean of blood beats pulses of mending.
Tissue bridges are architect's decrees
with big bang energy in building gyres
as life rafts between catastrophe's sending.
Using tears what healing weaves;
can we stop the universe's fire?
Water's warmth carries originary blessing.
My shoulder is an ancient monument built by thieves.
They stole the night stars in choirs
by flood tide's rending.
My rotating sinew is cantilevered greed,
arc of galaxy arm collapsed to grasping desire
to hold canteloupe while bending.
Healing redraws creation's grief.
While throwing stars and eating constellations' flare
We receive the balm of forgiveness' tending.
It heals because of blueprints we retrieve
from ancient libraries carried in stars within DNA's lair,
where we read of matter's branching.
We heal because we remember and believe.
We take the galactic dare
to incarnate as water blossoms, dancing.
OK, so here's the general guidelines to the poem form called Catawamp (http://imunuri.blogspot.com/2011/06/prompt-catawamp-poem-form-andor-concept.html). For example, in this poem, Rhyme Family A uses architectural metaphors and the rhyme "leave" or "retrieve" softening to "grief." Line 2s are from Rhyme Family B using big bang/galaxy metaphors and the rhymes of "gyre" opening to "air." Line 3s are from Rhyme Family C, using water/ocean metaphors exploring healing, with sounds of "...ending" becoming "...ancing." There are approximate rhymes throughout, so it's not totally uptight. Again, no syllabic constraints, because unlike patient Daniel I am not ready for those yet : ) - just this much structure tries my patience! I do like some of the lines that happened as a result of this Catawomp form, such as "We heal because we remember and believe" and also the idea that stars are inside DNA. I learned a lot about how even more densely packed what is unspoken behind each seed-metaphor-connection. As a poetic explainer, this feels somewhat frustrating to me, yet this is also the fruit of the form, that it juxtaposes and leaves the reader to do more of the lifting, be more fully engaged rather than spelling it all out. I would love to see what Catawamps others come up with! Please indulge!...
ReplyDeleteWow to that poem, and to the form. I like poems that leave the reader to engage and answer and question for the self. This was a wonder to read, all the healing wisdom here. And many amazing lines/moments, such as "My shoulder is an ancient monument built by thieves," as in the very architecture of the body, is so much about grasping what it, as a whole, needs, and healing is the process of making the grasping more fluid, and that part of the healing is the releasing... Again, wow.
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