It's how you walk back into the day -
your hands tender as new corn
or filled with dust.
I have swallowed the world
and I am full of it.
Come, our fingers are orchards
sheep graze on our mingled breath
whales sound in our arteries
and each morning
the fat eye of love
winks back.
From: Marriage for Beginners, Catherine Bateson, John Leonard Press, Melbourne 2009.
A blog where I talk about the reading, writing, post the Tuesday Poem and, sometimes, show some knitting.
7 comments:
Oh I want Marriage for Beginners. I'm sure you've posted a couple of poems from it now, and it's lovely. Tell me where I can buy it. Or could we do a book swap? X
I love this poem. "tender as new corn", lovely simile and poignant and pertinent to anyone who gardens. Love the "wink" image too.
Mary - let's swap! Ben, thank you.
okeydoke! a swap... - I love 'tender as new corn' too...
I fully concur, also this poem seems to have a lovely roundness to it, a completeness to it even as that eye "winks back"
What a delicious poem! I love the imagery, and the ending is perfect --"the fat black eye of love/winks back." I think the way the first verse paragraph sets up the rest is amazing. We can either drink the world in and identify with/have compassion for it, or not. It's our choice. Bravo!
Dear Catherine, this is gorgeous. I just got "Marriage for Beginners" in the mail and am salivating. I was going to suggest what Mary did, that we do a book swap? She beat me to it. Thank you so much for the gift of this book, and please let me try to return the favor.
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