Friday, July 2, 2010

...SHEARS...


Dagger.
Stiletto.
Blades hip-ly joint.
Cutleric matrimony.
Ah, whetted bliss.
(Iron sharpens iron,
In collaborative clipping.)

Guiding Hand.

{-A slice of life-
Swish, swish, swish-

Severed threads.
Fibrous motifs separate.
Loomed designs split.
Textiled palm lines diverge.
(Woven tarot subverted,
With the incisory shaping,
Of corresponding parts.)

-Re-forming process-
Seamster's pieced medley,
Of motley remnants-
Selvedge cloth-
Stitched.
Sewn.
Hemmed.
(Materialized garment,
Fashioned for the Nuptial Celebration)}

Predestined instrument.
Skilled tool.
Mechanism of craft.
Tailoring,
The fabric of this life.

4 comments:

  1. yeah, i'm up late. busy day. wanted to work on that song after leah went to bed. made some minor headway. just read thru your poem closely, dictionary in hand. seems you were going for secondary definitions on several of these words, or doubled meanings anyhow. it became interesting as the definitions piled up. at first glance it seemed kinda bleak: choppy and abrupt with hard punctuation and structure - not flowery or flowy. it had a march to it with all kinds of mechanical language. however, it had a tension with the maritial language interspersed. i'm still a bit puzzled to be honest. i have general ideas: sanctification. God's way of lovingly cutting away and pruning out the things that we have joined ourselves to - to our own hurt perhaps. i also have ideas about how this may relate to you personally with lines like "woven tarot subverted" and the lines that precede it, but i'm not certain. i'm very curious to find out though. your stuff is consistently deep and tough to crack open. you make a brother work for it for sure. the "ah, whetted bliss" line is great. your stuff always makes great use of form and inventive use of punctuation, brackets for example & i see that your now using font colors to add more tone, shifts, exclamation, etc... to what your writing. though i don't yet fully understand it, i do fully dig it. unriddle it for me if you would and i'd be much obliged.

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  2. Well, a part of me hesitates to unravel this one, only because I don't want to over simplify it through my explanation, but since this blog is intended to further us and join us- I will play nice and share. First, I will give you the general concept behind this one.
    I was contemplating fellowship, companionship, and specifically my marriage.
    I pictured it as a pair of scissors, blades in union, guided with divine hands.
    My initial thought was comprised of how often I am unaware of how my relationships will be used in my life. My main example of this is my marriage (I am continually amazed at how God uses my relationship with Shanna to shape me into what He has designed me to be), but is not isolated to my wife. Aspects of this riddle every deep relationship.
    In explanation of the "textiled palm lines" and "woven tarot subverted", many times we look ahead in life and try to plan the future, or at least imagine how it is going to be. We inspect the designs and motifs of our lines- the patterns- and think that we have it all figured out. We know what things are going to look like. But, more often than not, it looks nothing like we imagined it. This is due, in part, to our relationships and the Divine workings within/through them. These relationships cut through our preconceived ideas of what God is transforming our lives into. Regardless of what it looks like to us, one thing is certain, Steady Hands are piecing our lives- that have been shaped by the "cutting" of our relationships- into the holy life, that is, the garment of the Bridegroom's wedding feast (reference to the parable of the wedding feast). Yes, it's through His reformation of us, so you are right sanctification is involved. Our relationships are tools of sanctification.
    Finally, with this in mind, we can have a renewed perspective of our relationships. They are not to be taken for granted, but valued as tools that transform us into what we never could have imagined within ourselves. Designated surgical instruments. It's in the humbling mystery of what the future holds that we can find more respect for one another and the role that we hold in each others lives. One day we will be able to look back and be amazed at how our lives are completely different because of our friendships. I am able to look back even now and appreciate the place that Shanna holds in my life more today than the day I married her. I would have never supposed that the first day I met you, Doug, in Record Exchange, that we would have the friendship that we have today. Who knows what meeting, you, Justin, (through this blog) will bring about in the future? It's a mystery how we will even view this blog in 10 years- what we will see when we look back. These kind of thoughts require me to value the present. That's essentially what this poem is about, in the context of my marriage. I hope this makes sense. Maybe I explained it too much, but alas, it be what it be. Thanks for your interest. Keep the posts coming they're all super....very inspiring.

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  3. wow. not what i was thinking at all. i was assuming that the marital language was figurative for us marrying ourselves to things that are bad for us that God in turn cuts away as an act of kindness. as it related to you, i was guessing that references like woven tarot subverted (overthrown), you were refering to recent conversations that we've had relating to pagan stuff. thanks for playing nice and thank God for our scissor sisters!

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  4. well....I definitely think that part of a good poem is being able to interpret it within the context of your own life and apply it. That's one of the benefits of being the recipient. That's one of the reasons that I was reluctant to explain it. I did not want to remove the chance to read into and personalize through interpretation. Although I think my intent is important, of equal importance is the feeling that the audience experiences in reading it. In fact that unspoken aura of feeling may be more relevant than the actual message. It definitely effects the reception. Since I will not be able to always define what I mean to everyone that reads my writings, I think that what feeling the writing conveys to the larger group is a more accurate indication of what the piece will become- where it will be placed/marginalized/categorized- what compartment I will be placed in. Also, that feeling has more to do with artists' voice, regardless of what they are trying to say, and it is the rawest part. It is the thing that is the least within your control. It's almost separate from you- like the indwelling of a third party. It's your tone. I never want to explain something so much that the tone is lost. Maybe the words, tone, and reception have combined and created something that totally surpasses my intention. Take what you feel out of it...that is what's right. It's the grease that gets the gears of the mind moving...it just might get mine going in a different direction....regardless it can be a catalyst. Thank God for scissor sisters....and brothers. Our friendship "shears" so nicely.

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