Left
3 05 2008
Light is lifting, trees
sidestepping, circling
a clearing, in the centre
an abandoned house,
bareheaded, on its
knees before an
oblivious sky.
Fire’s rough tongue
has melted glass,
flamed wood to smoke
leaving a husk of
scorched stone.
Now grass grows in
empty geometries,
insects sift detritus and
the wind that fanned
the fire mouths an
apologetic sigh.
by Jo Hemmant















Lovely, Jo. ‘Empty geometries’ - that rings like a bell! Good to see you published at last. Onwards and upwards…
Wonderful, Jo.
Beautiful landscape poem and a wonderful reading,
the wind that fanned
the fire mouths an
apologetic sigh
Love this.
and
the wind that fanned
the fire mouths an
apologetic sigh.
i just loved this line,, it made me recall something i read the other day about the importance of fire in the regeneration of nature… i feel as if the sigh we hear uttered here,, is fire appreciating a job well done… even tho we may be unable to see it as that at the moment….
nice one
Loved hearing this one read! What a treat!
nice to hear your voice, i want to hear more! now i’ll have your voice in my head as i read. thank you
Great poem, Jo. I’m gonna come back for a listen when the kids are asleep. This is particularly gorgeous writing:
“Fire’s rough tongue
has melted glass”
p.s. maybe we should try a joint submission sometime? I paint from you or you write from me? I would be fun to mail the work in progress back and forth, yours and mine…
I absolutely love this, one Jo. Perfection — from first light to last sigh.
Thank you all very much and thanks qarrtsiluni.
Rick that is a fantastic idea, I’ll mail you.
It’s even better when you read it. You should consider MP3-ing all your poems and having a two-fold posting: text and sound. I enjoyed this a lot.
In reference to Rick’s suggestion, we want to make it clear that we very much welcome multi-author submissions, though we rarely get them (aside from when we did a special Ekphrasis issue). And single-author submissions that combine two or more media are welcome also.
Jo - this is superb, stunning …. am blown away by your reading of what was a magnificent poem to start with … *wild applause*
Oh, thanks qarrtisluni, I was going to e Dave to check. I will let Rick know, that’s great as I love collaborating with him.
absolutely beautiful poem
absolutely beautiful voice
wonderful all around
Kudos
Just when I think ive seen the best, you do something even better…. love it!