Trapping the Stars
January 13th 2009 19:07
Soul’s door spreads wide
For stars to move in,
Webbing the velvet void
In nets of smoking silver;
Heart’s hall invites
The whispering winds
To nestle near the hearth
And fan the dwindling flame;
Stars stowed indoors
Shed no light and burn
Their cage into heaps ash,
Wild wind entrapped
Will languish, giving
No spark to withered fire,
Drifting through drafty walls
To freedom.
Heart and soul must venture out
To find the light and light the fire
This is a weird little free verse poem I wrote the other day. I'm not sure exactly what I'm trying to say with this. I know what I was thinking at the time, and that was how vast, beautiful, and infinitely complex our world is, and how on earth could I ever even think I could possibly be able to somehow take all that and put it into words without the meaning and power slipping away.
So Trapping the Stars is, to me, about trying to take these infinite, wild things and stowing them away in your heart and soul for later use, for poetic inspiration, but coming to realize that these things can't stay in there like that. The human mind and soul can only comprehend and absorb a fraction of the power and beauty of the universe, and sadly, our language falls short in recreating these things as they are ("as they are" is the key phrase here).
So all we can do is try to live in the moment, to be there as a part of the world, and let the poetry and beauty flow around us, sink through our pores and breathe out as words. I try so often to think of poetic thoughts just out of my head, and so often I fail. Staring at a blank page or computer screen isn't conducive (for me) to being poetic.
So what does this mean practically? Well I think it means at least having a little notebook or sketch pad around with you, and when something amazing or beautiful happens and you get struck with the hammer of poetic epiphany, you'll have the tools with you to record it before you lose it. That happens to me a lot; I'll see something or hear something that is fantastic, but I don't have anything to write with, and a few hours later I'll either have completely forgotten about it, or it will have become muddled with the events of the day since then.
It's the same principle as photography, I think. if you don't have your camera with you when you have the perfect angle of a stunning sunset, or that elusive wild animal is in your backyard for only a moment and may never come again, you're just out of luck. There's only so much the brain can do to remember minutia like that, especially when you have to worry about so many other "important" things during the day.
So even if it's just a stack of post-its and all you can write are trigger words or phrases (words and phrases to jog your memory and senses later), I encourage you (and myself) to be ready whenever the moment strikes. Who knows what amazing poetry you can find in the corners of the day.
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