“Nicely spun” they say and instantly I become Charlotte
using my web for the welfare of others while waiting
for the two facts of life: offspring and death.
I am told that they come at the same moment
and have to remind myself that though I am a spinster
I am not a spider. Spider is just
my avatar
and, truth, my house is home to multiple spiders
whose webs hold it together, and whose yarns
I overhear from the edge of sleep:
Do we truly have a safe harbor? A human beinghas a brush for a hand instead of a rock. Whocares more about the yarn than the trapand can we stay and un-spin our luggageshouting as if from Whosville: listen, listen, if only,hear us and meet us and do not eat usand we will spin your tales into gold, anddecorate your bookshelves, world without end
My tenants have already traced their paths from
children’s books into poetry and the classics
and one recent waking dawn they told me to write a play
in which Charlotte, Anansi, and Ariadne meet
for a beauty contest with a human judge
I said I am not interested in world politics,
and they said, this is our home, and we are
your blessings, speak. And my tuffet
became
their hang out and drop in while I spun and spin
and spin with ink as my yarn or the word process-
er on and they move my fingers while I sleep.
I posted this poem at Imaginary Garden, which was defiant because it is not about the day's prompt. Sorry.
I enjoyed this.
ReplyDeletewell spun...hehe...what an interesting story that would be with charlotte and anansi...i like the nod too in the last stanza to the fact we are sometimes at the whims of our muse and where it will take us, if we are interested or not...really like the breakout of stanza two as well and what it contains....nice...
ReplyDeleteA glass of wine always brings those good words to the top of the web..spiders are clever..underestimated perhaps...the good thing about being alone is that you can hear her voice...Jae
ReplyDeleteI like the spider's industry, so long it stays a safe distance from me. Although spinsterhood is not a popular choice, I can clearly see it has many advantages, especially for the independent and self-sufficient soul.
ReplyDeleteI know very few for whom spiders and spinsterhood are choices, yet those images grabbed me today--or I grabbed them--after the "nicely spun" comment. Thank you for visiting and contributing your truth.
DeleteThank you, Mary and Brian and jaerose! Interesting connection you have shown me, duh . . . Of course this is about the muse and hearing her voice! What I didn't realize until this moment is that this poem is about the same thing as "Unfinished Melody"--a page reachable from the sidebar. Or, at least on the same topic. That one reached out beyond, and this one stays at home. Gosh. I bow to you.
ReplyDeleteI love how spiders spin their webs and try to save them if I can catch them under a glass and put them outside! Love seeing their webs with morning dew on them. Beautiful and so clever.
ReplyDeleteYour prose is multi layered. I hope you do listen to your muse and write a play about them.
Enjoyed this very much.
Thank you. Don't know about the play, but I have been thinking of Helen of Troy and the battle of the goddesses so that event slid right into this poem. I'm learning today that arachnids rule!
DeleteI love the miracle of spider webs..delicate art designed to capture the unaware...Your spider muses have done well...nice work!!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! It was "Charlotte's Web" that won me over. That book was never about Wilbur.
DeleteI like your exploration into the philosophical here from spider to spinster. I found this line:
ReplyDeleteinstantly I become Charlotte
using my web for the welfare of others while waiting
for the two facts of life: offspring and death.
particularly powerful. Thanks for participating in the Real toads Out of Standard. viva la
Thank you for this comment on the power of allusion and personal connections. I also ended up posting a poem much closer to your prompt, again surprising myself with how much I dare lately, how much less careful censorship I employ now that I am writing everyday.
DeleteExcellent writing, Susan!! We're have a haven for spiders here, too!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Today I am pondering truth in poetry. May I admit to you that I do not like actual spiders on my tuffet and when that location is indoors I am much more like Miss Muffet?
Deletei have a spider crawling around my office right now. no more offspring for me!
ReplyDeleteThis is really good,love the spiders and their webs.
ReplyDeleteI like the images you work into this one Susan--the spider and spinster, so different, yet each with a gift, each with a desire to create for food--physical or intellectual. I especially enjoyed the last lines of the first and last stanzas--conversational, but also full of juice. I'm pretty tolerant of spiders and most insect life(with certain exceptions--scavengers and vermin) as long as they don't crawl off the tuffet and onto the skin. ;_)
ReplyDeleteThese are my favorites:
ReplyDelete"though I am a spinster
I am not a spider"
"whose yarns
I overhear from the edge of sleep"
oh, i LOVE this, Susan! though i do have a fear of spiders. thanks for directing me here.
ReplyDelete♥
Thanks for visiting!
ReplyDelete