Saturday, January 09, 2010

Stone poems









6 comments:

  1. Rich, glistening, egg-like. A pleasure to see them this morning.

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  2. STONE

    Go inside a stone
    That would be my way.
    Let somebody else become a dove
    Or gnash with a tiger's tooth.
    I am happy to be a stone.

    From the outside the stone is a riddle:
    No one knows how to answer it.
    Yet within, it must be cool and quiet
    Even though a cow steps on it full weight,
    Even though a child throws it in a river;
    The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed
    To the river bottom
    Where the fishes come to knock on it
    And listen.

    I have seen sparks fly out
    When two stones are rubbed,
    So perhaps it is not dark inside after all;
    Perhaps there is a moon shining
    From somewhere, as though behind a hill--
    Just enough light to make out
    The strange writings, the star-charts
    On the inner walls.
    --Charles Simic

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  3. Thank you, Mim. It would have been hard not to photograph them after yesterday's rain. They looked to me like small stone boats - or beetles.

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  4. Hello Timoth

    What a stunning poem this is -and how perfect. I especially love the last lines -

    '... Just enough light to make out
    the strange writings, the star-charts
    on the inner walls.'

    Thank you. And thanks to Charles Simic.

    I think I might have to dig out a prose poem I wrote a couple of years ago, titled "It depends how you look at it." It takes the reader into the inner landscapes of a stone, in a way not unlike CS has here, and ends with the words 'There is a universe inside a stone... '

    I'd say we agree on this.

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  5. Yes! I remember the poem now.

    No wonder CS's poem, when I found it this morning after seeing your images, seemed so familiar. I had your wonderful piece in my memory, without exactly remembering it.

    Great minds . . .

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  6. On reflection, Tim - might it not be possible to be tiger, dove and stone?

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