Mahogany Browne put me onto Margaret. Shes pretty fresh.
The Moment
by Margaret Atwood
The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
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Whoa...like ten Haikus in one and -ish. I dig this. I like the start. And how it reached that ladder of this piece done flipped da script on ya. Almost kinda reminds me of your style Aja. Nonetheless,worth the read. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love margaret atwood, and this poem is simply evidence to boot!Actually, i'm tryin' to memorize poems these days... and hers was one of the 1st, Variations on the word sleep( the last stanza is amazing!:
ReplyDeleteI would like to watch you sleeping,
which may not happen.
I would like to watch you,
sleeping. I would like to sleep
with you, to enter
your sleep as its smooth dark wave
slides over my head
and walk with you through that lucent
wavering forest of bluegreen leaves
with its watery sun & three moons
towards the cave where you must descend,
towards your worst fear
I would like to give you the silver
branch, the small white flower, the one
word that will protect you
from the grief at the center
of your dream, from the grief
at the center I would like to follow
you up the long stairway
again & become
the boat that would row you back
carefully, a flame
in two cupped hands
to where your body lies
beside me, and as you enter
it as easily as breathing in
I would like to be the air
that inhabits you for a moment
only. I would like to be that unnoticed
& that necessary.
ahhh, yes. that is a lovely one. thanks mozart
ReplyDeleteatwood = necessary
ReplyDelete