Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Tuesday Poem - a little late! 'Winning the Day'

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.

7 comments:

Mary McCallum said...

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

Ben Hur said...

I love this poem. "tender as new corn", lovely simile and poignant and pertinent to anyone who gardens. Love the "wink" image too.

Cattyrox said...

Mary - let's swap! Ben, thank you.

Mary McCallum said...

okeydoke! a swap... - I love 'tender as new corn' too...

AJ Ponder said...

I fully concur, also this poem seems to have a lovely roundness to it, a completeness to it even as that eye "winks back"

Eileen D. Moeller said...

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!

Melissa Green said...

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.