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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8 comments:
Fierce ending.
Are you happy with "for there's much/ to be made of lips"?
I love "insouciant."
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 ...
i've changed it ...
Really like those last two lines. The 'can howl..' line has wonderful rhythm.
The final line brings to mind the one from Marina Tsvetaeva: 'Mother gave us to drink from the opened vein of Lyricism ...'
I love how the meaning meanders through those syntactical shifts - so subtle yet assertive. I like Tuesdays.
A fine poem - the last line most of all.
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.
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