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| Starry Night Over the Rhone by Vincent van Gogh |
Stardust I’m told, but also a river—
A flowing body of ice cold water
and still more—its warm bedrock container.
Perception, true, but also awareness
that neither adds nor subtracts, but receives
and releases without straining borders.
You are clarity without consumption
and questions with time-sensitive answers—
not a sculptor with quickly setting clay.
Your presence meets mine (!) mixed media,
lively protean sensibility
coming / going simultaneously.
What you are is kindred and kind to me
inviting me to be quite near or far
as led, not judging where that should take us.
What you are is artist, is magician,
is director, is performance itself,
and a sometime audience witnessing.
My blog poems are rough drafts.
Please respect my copyright.
Please respect my copyright.
© 2017 Susan L. Chast
Sounds like you are talking about me, comes the echoes of everyone who reads this.
ReplyDeleteSo much strength here...feeling so good reading this...great!
ReplyDeleteYou are clarity without consumption
and questions with time-sensitive answers—
not a sculptor with quickly setting clay.....nice!
Well, if I am honest I will say that this poem confuses me. I cannot figure out what the "you" is referring to. I must have missed a clue somewhere. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteOK, I understand this now...with another read. It speaks of relationship between the poet and the reader. I really like the way you penned this, Susan.
ReplyDeletelove the fluidity that the relationship draws..receiving and releasing without straining borders.. perfect.
ReplyDeleteartwork, artist and audience make a whole unit...it's an inseparable relationship through the ages...' What you are is artist,....is performance itself / and a sometime audience witnessing.'...how beautifully you extol the great artist....
ReplyDeleteYou are clarity without consumption
ReplyDeleteand questions with time-sensitive answers–
not a sculptor with quickly setting clay.
:Love this!
We all see (or read) art in different ways and our feelings are entirely our own and may see in such work visions not even considered by the artists themselves.
ReplyDeleteYour opening line say it all. It really boils down to how the viewer or reader in the case of literature perceives a piece if art. How do we know what is in the mind of the artist/writer. We can never gets it all right. And there are always so many interpretations.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice Sunday
Much love...
My goodness there is so much fiery emotion and pulsating power in this poem, Susan!❤️ Especially enamored by; "You are clarity without consumption and questions with time-sensitive answers— not a sculptor with quickly setting clay." Sigh..❤️ beautifully expressed.
ReplyDeleteLots of love,
Sanaa
Beautifully expressed.
ReplyDeleteHard, though, sometimes, to allow oneself to be led. (And oh how glad I am that someone else besides me still spells it that way!)
Sigh... a "sometime audience" somehow an echoing image...lovely
ReplyDeleteI especially admire the stanza beginning "you are clarity without consumption." So well penned.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are is kindred and kind to me
ReplyDeleteinviting me to be quite near or far
as led, not judging where that should take us. .........Really like this stanza.
I love the contrast in the first stanza....between the ice cold water and the warm bedrock container. Such palpable imagery there.
ReplyDelete...kindred and kind to me....not judging where that should take us. Those words resonanate with me. Well said!
ReplyDeleteI really like this cryptic, mysterious poem, especially because of how you use "you." Makes it feel very real.
ReplyDeleteWe are that bond, we are a pair... reader and poet.
ReplyDeleteYou are everything to me...what a wonderful description!
ReplyDeleteLove this Susan. You are.. . I needed to read this today. Beautiful thoughts..
ReplyDeleteSomeone who is everything (as your last stanza suggests) is a rare find indeed!
ReplyDeletePerception does hang on a moment, doesn't it? That is the nuance: the journey, the discovery and the joy, to be found in art.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are
ReplyDeletegood title and thought provoking poem
This is so beautiful. I especially like this:
ReplyDeleteWhat you are is kindred and kind to me"
Poems are generally self-reflexive -- the lyric I Me Mine -- yet this is sheer empathy, tracing the contours of the Other. Which, in the end, to me are wonderfully self-revealing. Rilke told us once that praising is what matters, and it may be that celebrating the Other is the truer door into ourselves. Nice work.
ReplyDelete