Lace and Ribbon Heaven - vantiani on flickrWill And Testament
If my voice should die on land,
take it to the shore;
fire it on a viking strand,
scatter ashes on the sea
with a broadcast quick and carelessly.
If my voice die on a mount,
take it to the valley plain,
and erect a strong redoubt
there circle bold megaliths upon,
as ancient treasures to Agamemnon!
If my voice die in ocean trench
raise it from that deep abyss;
stretch it on the littoral bench,
like a whale whose youth misspent
seeks Leviathan and will repent.
If my voice dies in the air,
then do not cry
and do not care
for I am but a step away
from lace, from ribbon...and eternitay!
notes:
strong redoubt...circle ... megaliths - great blocks of stone, like that circle of stones in England - I forget the name - ah, Stonehenge. One megalithic monument in Greece was misidentified for years as the Treasury of Atreus - for which name I substitue Agamemnon, who led the Greeks against Troy.
Leviathan - I pretend the Leviathan of Genesis is a name for God among the Whales.
lace and ribbon - as I approached the end of the poem, everything became very Emily Dickinson and "lace" and "ribbon" not only seemed appropriate for her, they seemed a bit obscure as were many of her images. Obscure or not, it is still obvious they refer to a beautiful heaven.
I found a photo by googling "lace" and "heaven" on the first try, so it may be an image and metaphor more common than I think.
2 comments:
I LOVE THIS.
It feels so easy (which a poem should if it can, even if it wasn't), and yes like her. By the end stanza I was with you in the clouds - so happy and satisfied (and tickled with your spelling of eternitay).
Thanks, Ruth.
The last stanza wrote itself. Once I knew where I was: in the air, it just sort of shined or glowed...and all I could do is try to pick out the words for the sensible emotion I was experiencing.
And I wasn't kidding about Emily Dickinson. The "lace" just inserted itself because it was so Dickinson: not obvious, but sort of sideways...I meant to say "heaven", but it was lace and ribbons.
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