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Open Poetry #36
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wranx
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since 2002-06-07
Posts 3689
Moved from a shack to a barn

0 posted 2005-12-01 06:52 PM



I had just reached for a notebook
In order to write a few words

About why I cut my hair, or why
I decided to winter in the shack again

Or simply, to write something

But there were none

Gone

Victims of the purge, dumped
Without ceremony into some dumpster

Along with other bits and pieces I deemed
No longer pertinent

Clothes, which no longer hunted
Boots, that no longer fish

General clutter I once found useful
Or once had meaning

Those many notebooks
Filled, in varying degree, with wisps of memory

And ethereal notions
Written in poetry of varying competence

Are now committed to a landfill
Condemned to inexorable and ignominious decay

Keeping company with the wheel-less
The button-less

The cracked and broken  
Detritus of other peoples lives

It’d have been better to have burned them
To have fed them to the woodstove

They would be every bit as gone
But, with a more poetic adieu

Smoke, made words
Made smoke

Once more

© Copyright 2005 E.F.Rose - All Rights Reserved
Nightshade
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Member Patricius
since 2001-08-31
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just out of reach
1 posted 2005-12-01 08:06 PM


You cut your hair??!!

Great write and I enjoyed reading it this evening. hugs, Chris

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
~Carl Sandburg

Martie
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since 1999-09-21
Posts 28049
California
2 posted 2005-12-01 08:18 PM


Ed...Tell me it's not so!!!!  Sigh!!  Who needs a notebook anyway?  I'm really glad to hear you're staying the winter....and Ed...Keep your computer!  
suthern
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since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723
Louisiana
3 posted 2005-12-01 08:38 PM


You threw away your words???? Don't you know how many of us would be willing to pay good money to claim your poetic rejects? *G*

I like this very much... especially the ending. *S*

Marge Tindal
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Florida's Foreverly Shores
4 posted 2005-12-01 09:17 PM


Ed~
A little wistful regret in this ... but,
I'm fingers-crossed hoping that it's a landfill and that the planted notebook of words will spring up and grow a word-forest~

*Huglets*
~*Marge*~

~*No matter what I search for ...
let me know when it is LOVE that I find*~ <))><

Email -       noles1@totcon.com       

Enchantress
Member Empyrean
since 2001-08-14
Posts 35113
Canada eh.
5 posted 2005-12-01 09:25 PM


You cut your hair?????
You threw away your words????  
But..but..hair usually grows back..
and YOU can always make new words.
Hugs~Nancy

Gentle Spirit
Member Patricius
since 2000-10-09
Posts 13989

6 posted 2005-12-01 09:30 PM


You did what, cut your hair!  
say it isnt so...

and the losing poems thingy? been there, done that also but the nice thing about words?

There are always more to say and write.

Seymour Tabin
Member Empyrean
since 1999-07-07
Posts 31720
Tamarac Fla
7 posted 2005-12-01 09:42 PM


wranx
New dew froms every morning and so do words.
Excellent write.

Aenimal
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-11-18
Posts 7350
the ass-end of space
8 posted 2005-12-01 10:29 PM


that absolutely sucks, not the poem, the loss of the notebook, and evidently this reply. excellent write as usual
Mysteria
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since 2001-03-07
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British Columbia, Canada
9 posted 2005-12-01 10:38 PM


Rats!  That sure sucks when you do something like that doesn't it?

So...you decided to hunker down for another frost-biting winter did ya?  Brave Yeti that you are, you needed that hair to warm your neck.

Duncan
Member Ascendant
since 2001-08-07
Posts 5455

10 posted 2005-12-01 11:27 PM


"About why I cut my hair, or why
I decided to winter in the shack again"

Though it's not the point of the poem, this makes me happy for some reason.  I think often of your shack and how it might be to live there, especially during the harshness of winter.

"It’d have been better to have burned them
To have fed them to the woodstove

They would be every bit as gone
But, with a more poetic adieu

Smoke, made words
Made smoke

Once more"

Sometimes, it's all in how you say good-bye. Enjoyed this Ed.

(And yes, I know, I owe you mail bud, but I've been a bit preoccupied lately with this little boy that's taken up residence in my house.     Nice enough kid, but geez do they take alot of energy to keep entertained, yanno???  Maybe I'll try again in the spring...)  


iliana
Member Patricius
since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434
USA
11 posted 2005-12-02 01:12 AM


Now this is sad!  But, I was having a conversation with someone the other day about art, and they said, "art is transient; and true beauty is fleeting; neither can be captured."  Obviously, your notebooks fit the bill, whether buried or burned!  And, actually it's that moment that we "get it" with a poem that is the art and beauty in it, I think. Your notebooks still create that here!  
Ratleader
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Member Rara Avis
since 2003-01-23
Posts 7026
Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass
12 posted 2005-12-02 03:12 AM


In my business, the bad stuff comes in, and our processes make it go away....the most important one though, is cyclical: It can't possibly operate without taking the sludge it has produced, and re-introducing a large part of it at the start of the process....because it's made up of bacteria, and to re-seed....enough of that....the short answer is, that nothing is wasted, and your words aren't gone. They're just in the return piping, and they'll be back, ready to go.

~~(¸¸¸¸ºº>   ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº>  ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº>    ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº>
______________Ratleader______________

babygirlwlove
Senior Member
since 2004-10-10
Posts 1180
New York City
13 posted 2005-12-02 06:51 AM


~feeling you, my friend~~~

~quicksilver hug~

~babygirL~

**Intoxicant to the SouL**

Tiersdin
Member Elite
since 2000-11-17
Posts 2364
east coast
14 posted 2005-12-02 07:42 AM


Ed, and you lie so well!

*smiling at you*

~tier

Paul Wilson
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United States
15 posted 2005-12-02 08:48 AM


Ed...Enjoyed very much

A sort of burial of the past and a birth of the future.

Stay safe this winter and write your new life experiences while keeping warm with those from the past if you can find that dumpster...Paul

~~To share my poems with you is to share my heart with you~~
Paul

scorpio
Member Ascendant
since 2002-10-02
Posts 5178
right...there
16 posted 2005-12-02 09:30 AM


New words will rise from those ashes like a phoenix.  

believe in what your heart feels...

garysgirl
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Florida, USA
17 posted 2005-12-02 11:15 AM


Oh Ed, I hate that you cut your hair!
And, I sure do hope that you won't almost freeze like last year, sweet buddy!!
(What you really need is someone there to help you stay warm)....or a big ole warm blanket.... LOL
I'm sure you've got lots of those.

And the words, dear Ed, are always there. I call
myself "cleaning up" like that sometimes, too.

I look forward to seeing more of your "words"
of those thoughts of yours.
Warm hugs to you,
Ethel

Mysteria
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British Columbia, Canada
18 posted 2005-12-02 11:50 AM


I just realized something - I deleted the link to watch the river!  Can you send me that again for spring?  

Sometimes when we lose something it is a purge alright and maybe for a reason?  I know one thing your words all have weight and new ones will just tip the scale.

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa
19 posted 2005-12-02 12:44 PM


This is the first of your poems that I have encountered.  It is very beautiful, real and sad - not so much about the hair - as somebody said, it will grow back, but your poetry!  That hurts not only you and everyone who knows you, but also me who doesn't.  I wish you warmth, happiness and please let the poems flow.  I can't be online often or long as I can't afford it, but when I am, I will certainly be looking out for your work for the pleasure of reading it.  

- Owl

Forgot to say how clever and perfect and poetic the ending of your poem is.

- O

serenity blaze
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since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

20 posted 2005-12-02 01:38 PM


It is indeed a purge, isn't it?

There's defiance in this that is healthy too.

And smiling achoo, my river buddy...because YOU were the first to understand my own reluctance on this side of the screen.

Oddly enough, I hacked some hair off too.

I love you m'yeti...

and poetry? You can't NOT write poetry.


Ratleader
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Visiting Earth on a Guest Pass
21 posted 2005-12-02 03:21 PM


Ah, OwlSA, you have a treat in store....Wranx is a singularly excellent part of this place, and through his poetry he will take you places, show you things, that nobody else can.

And he's an Ed too!

~~(¸¸¸¸ºº>   ~~(¸¸¸¸ºº>  ~~(¸¸ ¸¸ºº>    ~~~(¸¸ER¸¸ºº>
______________Ratleader______________

Copperbell
Senior Member
since 2003-11-08
Posts 956

22 posted 2005-12-03 02:57 AM


great poem - thanks for sharing

there's something about letting your words be gone - finished, eventually forgotten

Susan Caldwell
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-12-27
Posts 8348
Florida
23 posted 2005-12-03 11:25 AM


I know about cutting off hair, and throwing away words...both I did for someone else and one of which I still regret..

but it didn't stop me from writing as it didn't you.  

"too bad ignorance isn't painful"
~Unknown~

littlewing
Member Rara Avis
since 2003-03-02
Posts 9655
New York
24 posted 2005-12-03 06:29 PM


*smile*

and look what I found in here (you)
(is so good to see you writing)

and this . . . *sigh*
how I know about getting rid of "stuff"
that really isn't stuff . . .

btw - you look lovely with short hair.

*smile*  

Dark Angel
Member Patricius
since 1999-08-04
Posts 10095

25 posted 2005-12-04 12:10 PM


you cut your hair?

this means only one thing...we need to du-et again

Magnificent this Bro... as per usual.



mxx

how i would love you, love you as no one ever did! Die and still, love you more. And still love you more..and more
~Neruda~

muted
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since 2004-01-15
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Elapsing, Eclipsing, Evolving
26 posted 2005-12-05 07:55 AM


you stayed in that shack to feed the butterflies
your hair? all better now to see your beautiful smile

as for words thrown away, long after the words are forgetten...the feeling remains;
and THATS all that counts...


PouringJewels
Member
since 2003-09-18
Posts 158
Maryland
27 posted 2005-12-06 02:46 AM


You forgot to mention on the phone yesterday, you cut your hair. Your junk will grow as well as your hair. Love you more!
littlewing
Member Rara Avis
since 2003-03-02
Posts 9655
New York
28 posted 2005-12-06 09:25 AM


Julia?  Doesn't he look so handsome? and laughing because ---> the junk just growing again . . .
gemjop
Member Elite
since 2002-11-18
Posts 2587
Pencilveinia, USA
29 posted 2005-12-06 09:51 AM


I've read this several times now. generally in awe.

Despite the sadness i felt ( i am a hanger on to every last piece of paper/notebook) i felt like, he has the guts i could never have. I sometimes wish i could have the feeling that i got from this. a sense of freedom, you're not scared of letting go of items, of feelings written down.  

Your fearless purge is as beautiful as it is sad, if that makes sense. (she says, rocking her folders and journals of rubbish like babies)

Going into my library.

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