It seems that my Poetry Sisters and I have officially been writing together for a decade.
Which is nearly impossible to me, in that time flies when you’re having fun.
But also, we didn’t exactly set out to do this — whatever this is — long term.
It just sort of… happened.
It is so often the way with life that really brilliant plans are only obvious in retrospect.
That in looking back we see patterns we didn’t notice at the time.
That in our successes, some plan or mastermindery becomes vividly apparent.
So much actually happens by gut or instinct or luck, at least for me.
For some reason these are the thoughts that emerged as I looked at one of this month’s artistic prompts (thanks to Tricia and an exhibit last year at the University of Richmond). These thoughts of patterns amidst chaos, of making our way through one while attempting to find the other. Which, when you think about it, is also what poetry is. So here’s my attempt at just that…
Color Equation 2 — Janine Wong
Life’s a Hard Job
Inspired by Color Equation 2 — Janine Wong
If you see a whole thing, it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives… But up close a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. –- Ursula K. Le Guin
From that initial bang
you’ve been beautiful
offering up a careful
constellation
of stepping stones
through this chaos
of soil and subatomic
particles, offering up
a predetermined
path to follow –
no – to hang onto
like an astronaut
does a safety-tether.
From that initial bang
you’ve unrolled choices
in front of us, row
after orderly row
of equally good choices
but when we make
the leap toward one
or the other, we discover
we are weightless
we are improvising
we are – yes, it must be
said – hurtling through
space and it is – it must be
said – a hard job.
Find my pals’ work here:
Tanita
Laura
Tricia
Kelly
Sara
Andi
And it’s Poetry Friday over at Poetry for Children. Enjoy!
Liz, I honestly don’t know how you always seem to capture the complexity of life so well. This is just a gorgeous love letter…
Oh, thanks, Laura. That’s sweet of you to say, but I feel like when I’m writing ekphrastic poetry I just follow where I’m lead….
I agree with Laura. I almost chose this image, but don’t know I could’ve matched this. It is delicate and powerful and perfect. I felt myself quiver at:
“when we make
the leap toward one
or the other, we discover
we are weightless”
LOVE the Ursula Le Guin quote, too. Gonna pin that one up in my office.
Doesn’t that Ursula LeGuin quote just say it ALL???
Wow, that St. Ursula quote is just wonderful — as is your alliteration, Liz. The careful constellations and orderly rows of choices really are what life looks like from far away! But the chaos rages and we’re just hanging on by our fingernails on a ride that’s going really fast!
You make it sound effortless, though. I love that so much.
Haha — yes to the fingernails…
I’m reading Yuval Noah Harari’s ‘Sapiens’ now & think he would like your poem, considering how he is looking at those choices, and the results: “but when we make
the leap toward one
or the other, we discover
we are weightless
we are improvising.” Sometimes our leaps are not chosen, and I connected to that a lot, Liz. Finding sturdy ground is a challenge. I read the poem several times, each time finding some truth for me, I’m guessing for everyone. Lovely complexity, like the picture.
Thanks, Linda! And, I’ve been wondering about that book. I might have to put it on my list!
I think it’s wonderful that you all have been together for a decade. Love the Le Guin quote.
I think I could write 100 poems based on that quote alone!
I’m with everyone here in loving the quote you introduce this poem with. I love the notion of these lines
a predetermined
path to follow –
no – to hang onto
like an astronaut
does a safety-tether.
Then you tie it altogether so beautifully with weightless improvisation.
Thank you for this bit of loveliness. I’m going to let these words guide me this year.
Oh, thank you, Tricia. And thank YOU for the art that guided me!!
All of it. The image, the quote, your response. LOVE.
Thanks, Mary Lee… that means a lot coming from you!
I agree–that quote at the beginning is just perfect, and your poem beautifully captures the complexity of life close up and the wonder as patterns emerge despite ourselves.
Despite ourselves — so true. We are often the chaos itself!
I love how you started with the Ursula quote that’s slowly introspective, and then your first line, “From that initial bang…” you just took off. I read, and re-read this poem, it is a wonderful piece.
Oh, thank you! I had a lot to work with!
Yes–”a hard job” but so worth it, whereever the “tether” takes us, thanks for your journey here Liz.