MIRROR
My mind and spirit
Can't go to sleep,
Too much time spent
Embracing my bones
And denying my soul.
My lips move but
There is no sound,
My heart wants to move
So there can be
A symphony.
But then
I place a mirror
Against my soul's mouth,
And I watch in wonder
As her breath
Fogs the glass.
My fevered hand writes
her beseeching lines,
Half hers, and
Half mine.
© Sherri Brannon 2014
I shut myself in with my soul, and the shapes come eddying forth. ~Bliss Carman
I think this is the longest I've ever taken to write a poem...this one has been challenging me for a couple of months. It's morphed so many times and I was increasingly dissatisfied. It finally evolved full circle back to where I basically started with it. The first stanza definitely describes where my "writing mind" has been lately. I've felt blocked and distracted...my soul's shapes have been very murky!
I'm linking up with Poetry Pantry today - my image was taken awhile back with my iPhone. This is my kitchen window, and the sun was setting when I captured the shot.
Thank you for stopping by!
This is beautiful, Sherri. Sometimes it does pay to put a poem aside for a while and come back to it, rather than setting it free before it is ready. I think your first stanza describes so very well the 'stuck' place we poets get ourselves into at some point. The second stanza is really inspired...the idea of the mirror of one's soul fogging the glass & thus freeing the ability to write - wow!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the poem--how difficult to both stand guard and write simultaneously. Letting the guard down with breath and a mirror paradoxically opens the poetic response. I think it is a semi-divine state. I often write to get to the place where my breath really is. Beautiful. Thank you.
ReplyDeletei love the image of placing a mirror against the soul's mouth and in the exhale find those words that come from deep within suddenly visible...
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful Sherri and such depth of thought. also love your photo with it!
ReplyDeleteLovely photo, Sherry! Some poems take a while to write. I remember one I had started and which never seemed to be right. I wrote others for a while and then, one day, I went back to it and things were easier.
ReplyDeleteplacing the mirror against the souls mouth and seeing the breath...what an awesome image...it pairs well with the longing to dance as well...its cool too when you touch that place between us and the divine....nice write sherri
ReplyDeletewell done...it is often a challenge for the writer to find the life still breathing within their soul. This is good
ReplyDeleteFantastic sunshine shot, Sherri. I really resonate with the poem......especially "my heart wants to move so there can be a symphony"...sometimes we make do with smaller tunes - but occasionally, as in this poem, the spirit itself stands up and begins to speak.
ReplyDeleteYour words are deep and touching, Sherri ... You describe so vividly how a birth of a poem is folding out...
ReplyDeleteSimply beautiful... you have an amazing talent for writing ...
ReplyDeleteI can't not comment here. I can so relate to the process. Night is the worst! You want to sleep but there is something on your mind and you can't seem to settle enough to drop off. But when you get up and try to write it is like staring at a blank page because you aren't sure what is troubling you! Is it God or the vestiges of humanity that haunts your soul? I suspect that though this poem is finished the underlying trouble will continue to haunt and many more poems are, so to speak, destined.
ReplyDeleteplacing the mirror against the souls mouth...that is just breath-taking.
ReplyDeletelove this reflective poem of growth and inner vision.
stacy lynn mar
http://warningthestars.blogspot.com/
Brilliant beauty!
ReplyDelete