Dropped Pages: On the Night of the Angelic Ellipse
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
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It contains so many ideas which converge in the final stanza. Loved that..
lay in lace
thanks, gautami. off to lay in lace… 🙂
thanks fledging and tumblewords.
really beautiful…leaves me wordless!
garsh!
Interesting view! An orbital ellipse … is a fine thing!
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.
Rich words filled with meaning…lovely.
“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!
thanks, Suma.
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…
I love how everything I was hoping was meant was acknowledged and braided into the end.
Very nice work.
Tschuess,
Chris
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.
Chris, I love how you love.