Sunday, March 25, 2012

A thousand pieces


                                                                             Jennifer Vranes "Breath of Provence"


As I look into the horizon,
I breathe in the beauty 
that is before me.
I take a step.
I hesitate.
I move back. 
Which path to take I ask,
the linear strip of sky
that greets the earth
where I can soar
with unrelenting certainty;
Or the path less taken,
where I can dance and be free
with violets
amidst the golden fields 
of unending majesty.
A thousand pieces
all kept in a box,
waiting for me to unravel its beauty
as I decide the piece 
to begin my journey.




4 comments:

  1. I love the surprise of this poem! I didn't get it was a puzzle at first, but when I did, everything clicked into place. The poem itself is a puzzle and the speaker puts herself in the landscape of the puzzle, using it as a metaphor for life. If it were just paths in the landscape that would be predictable but using the puzzle metaphor gives it an unexpected twist. Brilliant!

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  2. The word that inspired this poem was haphazard. It was really an expression of the confusion I was feeling that day. Sometimes decisions with very sure and expected results may not always be the best ones but then to "dance and be free" can also be daunting. It always comes down to taking that first step and with faith, expect good things to come.

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  3. How interesting that your trigger word for this poem was "haphazard" though it didn't come out in the poem. You should look up this essay called "The Triggering Town" by Richard Hugo. It is about how we have these triggers for our poems but when the poem is done we don't need the scaffolding anymore so there's usually no trace of it in the final piece; it's which is a work of art all on its own. You're already employing all these poetic techniques without having learned them. Awesome!

    here's the link to the essay i mentioned: http://ualr.edu/rmburns/RB/hugosubj.html

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  4. Maybe I was a poet in my previous life? I have been seeing so many parts of myself that I never realized existed. A friend told me a few months ago, this is my last lifetime and this would mean encountering snippets of the many lives I lived. I have to share this with her. Amazing, thank you.

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