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Left
May 3, 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
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Categories: Nature in the Cracks
Jo Hemmant
qarrtsiluni 
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!