Monday, May 17, 2010

Tuesday Poem: A Poem



A Poem


can stray like a hair on a cardigan

curl like an ear, insouciant, clean

can close like a mouth, thinly

and deepen those lines going nowhere

or coming from nowhere and finding

the lips there, for much is made of lips 

can howl like that mouth left alone in the house

can open like a wrist



                                       Mary McCallum


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Tuesday Poem

8 comments:

Mim said...

Fierce ending.

Are you happy with "for there's much/ to be made of lips"?

I love "insouciant."

Mary McCallum said...

Thanks Mim - funnily enough 'much/to be made of lips' is one of those lines that I didn't engage with as much as the others because it just WAS. Now you've pointed me to it, I think I feel it would be better as 'much is made of lips' which is not really what you're asking... I like the phrase because it is colloquial with a hint of the derisory and refers so casually to two things that are deeply and complexly entwined inside poetry: kissing ( love) and (speaking) words - both connotations of lips ... And so too the howl ...

Mary McCallum said...

i've changed it ...

Janis Freegard said...

Really like those last two lines. The 'can howl..' line has wonderful rhythm.

Penelope said...

The final line brings to mind the one from Marina Tsvetaeva: 'Mother gave us to drink from the opened vein of Lyricism ...'

Rachel Fenton said...

I love how the meaning meanders through those syntactical shifts - so subtle yet assertive. I like Tuesdays.

Tim Jones said...

A fine poem - the last line most of all.

S.L. Corsua said...

I lingered after the sixth line. "for much is made of lips" gave me a sugar rush, so to speak. ;)

The last two lines remind me of confessional poems and the intensity behind, during, and after the making.