Wednesday, April 14, 2010

There and Here (a cleave poem)

there, come upon a greening once
in ticked and timely woulds
where all footed plantings have danced and swirled,
he takes a speculative girl
they tip-toe tentative steps of belonging
to meet, to part, join fingers and twirl
till they reach an inevitable verge
but with each successive passing
of the will to do and was not true
she grows fainter in his mirrored should and
their shy shadows wobble in recognition that
her hands can only feebly grasp at
what's lost is found, but never bound to
this fading pane of here

5 comments:

Francis Scudellari said...

A "cleave poem" is a form in which the two halves that can be read both separately and together. Unfortunately there's not enough space to format this properly (they should be side by side).

Megan Duffy said...

This is absolutely beautiful, Francis. Reminds me of Hopkins' "Spring and Fall" and Cowper in tone.

"they tip-toe tentative steps of belonging
to meet, to part, join fingers and twirl"

just wonderful

Jenny said...

I think that even though there was not enough space, cleave effect worked very well. It influenced the imagery in a nice way too. I really like (for example):

"this fading pane of here"

Anonymous said...

Deeply suggestive one which fixed me in the spin.

Anders Enochsson said...

Well, this got me spinning. Like it alot.