Building

Lemoyne Star quilt, OrangesI like to build things.
houses of irony,
wings out of emptiness,
wealth with freedom,
freedom from desire,
passionate power
through humble fire.

I like to take things apart-
ego trips which hide a hurt child,
logic, with its webs of words
love, acid test for the heart
which burns to a fresh core,
TV, legal heroin-
(poetry now for why and WOW!)
Trix Cereal, to eat the just the marshmallows,
orchid flowers next to moth wings
because they both can fly in dreams,
light and dark shadows
which creep across the wall,
a new heartbeat, ba- dum, for each scene-
(purple crayons, into reds and blues, and violets, too),
purses, full of stories and things you need,
the layers of flavor in a slice of aged cheese,
the fruit hidden in a sip of wine
made from five different grapes,
from five lands far and wide-

as I listen to this ancient music,
this Bach, chugging across
the tracks of time,
rolling over my gaucherie
with wheedling words
loose and natural,
down these rocks,
purposeful, watchful,
timed entropy.

I build sand castles to watch
as the wind blows them away.

The quilt in the photo is from the Civil War era. The pattern is called Lemoyne Star, miniaturized to crib quilt scale. It comes from Kalamazoo, MI.

24 thoughts on “Building

  1. That was beautiful and filled with such lovely self-empowering thoughts, except of course the part about pulling apart purple crayons. ๐Ÿ™‚ I really enjoyed the musical rhythm of it. It felt like I should be dancing while I was reading it. But I won’t tell the 65th that you wrote about purple crayons anyway.
    LhG

  2. The quilt was the perfect pick for this poem…You manage to blend very childlike images and qualities with very adult ones. I think that it’s interesting that the quilt had to be changed to fit the crib;)

  3. I love the rich colors in that photo. I can tell that winter’s stretching long when I start craving colors like this. loose and natural รขโ‚ฌโ€ yes.

  4. Tami- Hi- That’s a good way to describe the way I am, childlike next to adult. The quilt is made to be a crib quilt, it was just scaled smaller when made.

  5. MB- Nice to see you. You are so faithful as a blog friend. I appreciate that. Yes, color is my visual poetry in winter. And loose and natural describe my floppy, low key attitude these days, a significient and positive development for me in the long run. I tend to be compulsive and nervous.

  6. orchid flowers next to moth wings
    because they both can fly in dreams

    the fruit hidden in a sip of wine
    made from five different grapes,
    from five lands far and wide

    Beautiful, beautiful imagery. My senses are filled to the brim, so to speak. *grin*

    rolling over my gaucherie

    Thought-provoking. ^_^ Thank you for sharing this. It has been a treat.

  7. Virtual feast for the mind, the heart, the soul and the eyes. So soothing for a rainy Saturday afternoon. So glad I came by…

    Ciao for now…

    Teri

  8. Hi! Guess what I loved this poem in all kinds of ways- loved the words, the feel, the sound and definitely, not the least the way it wrapped itself around me visually. From the 10 word line of the Gouda to the single word line- watching! Thanks for this multi-layered treat!

  9. Hello name of the rose. Nice to see you. I think I wrote about detail to get into it. Sometimes I have to think to enjoy detail. The effort if worth it.

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