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Dropped Pages: On the Night of the Angelic Ellipse

March 15, 2009 by openchannel 12 Comments

Dropped Pages is a series of poems that were originally dropped from my books and chapbooks. I have reclaimed them here.

Dropped from Her Red Book

On the Night of the Angelic Ellipse

She confuses her back porch for
something wayward
circles the peeling paint and rusty cans
like wrinkles in a plan

The white of her new uniform
makes her smile while looking
into classmates eyes
opening their chests
fire escapes
overcomes
their beautiful round faces

The Korean instructor
places his hand over her heart
and when he moves
away     she still feels
presence     whispering
in a halo

She swears there are angels in
the room when the lights are
down    eyes closed
she senses     a pressure from across
the room and a voice counts to ten…

At home in post-yoga trance
a friend explains to her
the mathematic symbolism
of the ellipse
the center of which is equidistant
from two communal circles
a macrocosm   the voice delights
an architecture

I’ve always liked the word orbit
she admits     the voice nods
It’s good to travel around the sun

~ ~ ~

Hop on the Poetry Train

Filed Under: Archived Blog, dropped pages, her red book, monday poetry thang, poetry, random poop Tagged With: chapter book, poetry, poetry train

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. gautami tripathy says

    March 16, 2009 at 8:23 am

    It contains so many ideas which converge in the final stanza. Loved that..

    lay in lace

    Reply
    • openchannel says

      March 16, 2009 at 4:59 pm

      thanks, gautami. off to lay in lace… 🙂

      thanks fledging and tumblewords.

      Reply
  2. angie says

    March 16, 2009 at 9:54 am

    really beautiful…leaves me wordless!

    garsh!

    Reply
  3. Tumblewords says

    March 16, 2009 at 10:40 am

    Interesting view! An orbital ellipse … is a fine thing!

    Reply
  4. david zen-kennedy says

    March 16, 2009 at 11:26 am

    This is a very touching work. . . I found it to be very thought-provoking. ‘whispering in a halo . . . ‘ I enjoy 4-word phrases that are almost stories in themselves.

    And.

    I smiled at your last stanza. . . I once wrote a poem about the moon and how orbits were ticking me off. As the orbiting body can’t get close to its ‘host’ without crashing into it. I do love the line though. . . It’s good to travel around the sun.

    Well done.

    Hey, I’m just taking notes… haha. Love the idea of getting ticked off at orbits. grrrr. Nope, can’t get too close. Makes me want to write a love poem for wanting to caress the sun.

    Reply
  5. Fledgling Poet says

    March 16, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    Rich words filled with meaning…lovely.

    Reply
  6. sumasubramaniam says

    March 16, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    “something wayward
    circles the peeling paint and rusty cans
    like wrinkles in a plan”

    “the ellipse
    the center of which is equidistant
    from two communal circles”

    Simply wonderful!

    Reply
    • openchannel says

      March 16, 2009 at 4:59 pm

      thanks, Suma.

      Reply
  7. alkonnect says

    March 18, 2009 at 9:42 pm

    will have to get into Eeastern metaphore… to penetrate your poetry at its best! still find it very intriguing and appealing… in an elusive way…

    what I usually mean by East it’s what is East for my culture, i. e. ancient Greece… thus have some further studying of… far away metaphors (as in Far East and more :))to do before picturing everything in my mind…

    Reply
  8. Sepiru Chris says

    March 19, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    I love how everything I was hoping was meant was acknowledged and braided into the end.

    Very nice work.

    Tschuess,
    Chris

    Reply
  9. openchannel says

    March 19, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    alkonnect – the only thing eastern about it is that I was taking a Korean yoga course. 🙂 I believe ellipses are universal. It’s basically about how patterns are re-created in life and noticing movement / orbit – personal and cosmic.

    Reply
  10. openchannel says

    March 19, 2009 at 8:15 pm

    Chris, I love how you love.

    Reply

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