Summer time often means travel time, so it made sense to use trip pics as our poetry source this month.
More specifically, Sara offered up three images from a trip she made to Israel, all of which feature rock or stone structures. Beyond that, there were no specifications so you’ll find that our work really varies this month.
Here’s mine from the Wailing Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem…
The Wailing
By Liz Garton Scanlon
We stand shoulder
to shoulder, the tiny
and the tall, the mighty
and the meek, the feared
and the beloved, we stand
like blades of grass, like warp
yarns, each absolutely singular
yet woven together and wailing,
wailing into the cracks of our lives
Now, here are the others…
Laura
Tanita
Sara
Kelly
Andi
Tricia
Plus, you’ll find poems of all stripes over at My Juicy Little Universe! Enjoy!
I love that last line — wailing into the cracks of our lives.
thank you ….
I love the way you build on each line, and add specific details to our picture – the grass, the yarn, the cracks and our wailing. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
the poem started to come out that way so then I decided to roll with it and it made sense…
I love how the line lengths build along with the despair. Stunning, Liz.
thanks, pal…
Beautiful poem. I agree with Kay. That last line is perfect.
Oh, gosh… thanks…
She is so small against the face of all of that stone — it looms above her head and so echoes all of us — small in the face of our lives, and yet, standing, and wailing out our griefs, our dreams, our hopes, and our demands for the world to be better than it is.
♥
Tanita! This comment is a poem in and of itself. So gorgeous and so true…
I love the contrast between the hard wall full of cracks and the softness of “we”–blades of grass, warp yarns–which are flexible, pliable, and yet sharp, warped. That friction is exactly the sound of wailing.
Aching here.
Oh, Heidi… I wouldn’t have been able to say it that way. Thank you….
What a building of emotion in each line…all the way to the wailing.
It kind of just came out that way…
Whether ‘wailing’ or ‘celebrating’, when we stand with others, we bring something together that creates a common strength. Those words “like blades of grass, like warp yarns” feel so powerful to me. It is beautifully haunting and hopeful, Liz.
Yes. Thank you…
I hear the wailing of individuals across the world between the lines of your poem, and especially from this powerfully evocative image, mothers for their children. Thanks for your sensitive poem Liz.
Oh mercy, the way you describe that… thank you…
A beautiful building of momentum and emotion. It’s like the bricks intermeshing in the wall. And that last line is superb.
Mmmm I love that brick image — thanks!
This poem breaks my heart a little, but I love it. I love the contrasts between tiny and tall, mighty and meek, etc. And the notion of standing shoulder to shoulder buoys me in the face of the “cracks in our lives.” Brilliant.