Tuesday, March 2, 2010

mag 3 on da bus = dead weight

This week the ticket for Monday's The Poetry Bus has to do with
the topic of death and eternity, so I am killing two birds (since we're
talking about death, but not any magpies, of course) with one stone
and combining the bus and Tuesday's Magpie Tales photo prompt.
.
So, here's my version of "Mag 3 on Da Bus".


Dead Weight


What separates the living
from the dead?

I've heard it said
a few grams
of something
measurable

leaves the body
at the point
of death.

A minuscule weight.
Heavier than air.
More than
that last breath.

What's there?
Where does it go?
When does it start?

Can human scales
detect the absence
of a soul?

Is the sum
of our parts
less than the whole?



willow, 2010

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81 comments:

  1. A willowy Libra with her poetic scales ...

    By the way, did you see the film "21 grams", which plays, at least in its title, with this same question?

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  2. Such eternal questions in this poem. So creative and yet intriguing....thought provoking.

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  3. Lorenzo, yes, that's where the inspiration came from.

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  4. can we measure it...nope dont think that is up to us...can we tell when its gone...sure can. nicely done willow.

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  5. This is one of your best poems yet, Willow...my favorite, in fact.

    I've been working on this week's Magpie challenge. I had to do a little research on your curious prompt photo first. I'm wondering how it came into your possession. Care to tell?

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  6. beautiful words, ladywillow! thought-provoking and powerful! love it! thanks so much for coming by my places! always love your visits, as i do visiting the manor!

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  7. Is it just me, or your entire blog is changing? No complaints, just a remark.

    The poem is Heavy-weight.

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  8. something to think about. You are now a literary destination.

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  9. Steviewren, actually, it's a Chinese scale weight from Nanjing. A little something WT came home with, in his pocket. He knows the kinds of things his magpie likes.

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  10. Really nice take on the prompt! This one gives me something to think about.

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  11. Wonderful poem, willow. I agree with steviewren--this is among your best. Thanks.

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  12. I had to go look up Webster's exact definition of soul - I'm not sure I have one.

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  13. Very nice, as always, Willow! So many ways to play with meaning!

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  14. thought provoking..yes..this was wonderful...but wait, is that soup i see and recipes..what a beautiful photograph...

    on my way to check that out...

    more later, my friend

    kary
    xxx

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  15. Ah, the muse visited you though she flew directly past my house without stopping. Nice one, Willow.

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  16. Can human scales detect the absence of a soul? is the sum of our parts less than the whole?....great stuff here, Willow.
    :) The Bach

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  17. Love your equation title with intriguing questions, the ingredients for a good Philosophy class for sure! Pondering is good for the soul, perhaps it provides an increase in that final weight configuration. I enjoyed reading through this one. Thanks!

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  18. Man Willow, quite an amazing take on both writing assignments. I have been wracking my brain. The Kilo only lets me go in one direction. I need to back up and take another turn. Great job.
    QMM

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  19. ooo...
    you posted?
    ok, hard to contain this group! :) when exuberance abounds :)
    ok i posted mine.

    and i am so intrigued how the imagery speaks to us all in a variety of ways...

    wonderful questions...matched to the scales of libra...
    as she waits...longing for the answers.
    nice ms willow!

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  20. Haunting...this one will stay with me a while.

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  21. I like this willow - there is a lot of food for thought there.

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  22. Great job, Wills! This brought to mind a C.S. Lewis quote I just read last week. "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

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  23. Dear Willow,

    You have it in you to create beauty. You do easily what others could never do. A smile is even better when it has a tear in it.
    You are Sunshine to a flower.

    yvonne

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  24. I so rarely comment on your posts though I always enjoy them. This poem, however, touched me more than most. I wanted to say thank you for sharing your innermost words and thoughts; they are beautiful.

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  25. I love the thoughts expressed in this poem. Absolutely lovely.

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  26. This is very inspirational...have I have been stymied by this one and still have no inspiring thoughts about this object. I may pass this week. I knew it was a weight. I am in awe of how you wove the weight of the soul in this.

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  27. I too think this is one of your best...maybe the Libra connection, maybe maybe...it's thought provoking and beautiful!

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  28. I'm hoping you put this poem into your book. I love all your poetry, but this is one of my favorites. And your snow poem still stays with me.

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  29. Nice poem, like the last line.I guess a soul can be light as a feather or heavy as hell!?

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  30. Apposite questions beautifully posed, Willow.

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  31. Beautiful poem, Willow.

    What I find sad/funny is that in our society, we deny what we experience when someone dies, but later believe it because some finely tuned scale tells us that something leaves the body at death.

    For heaven's sake.

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  32. You have a nice light touch with such a weighty (sic!) topic. It's odd that we can certainly tell the difference between a living person and a dead on but can't quantify it.

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  33. Very interesting question...Now I want to see '21 Grams' :)

    Love the neat little weight!

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  34. i love love love this!!!!

    ...as it relates to me, and the death of my dad (too long to write about).

    xx superb !

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  35. Deep thoughts here.

    I was present at my gram's death last month. While my sister called it "haunting," I was riveted. It was a trip to watch her leave us, both terrifying and final, euphoric and lovely. And I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

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  37. Willow,
    Holy smokes>>> that really is awsome!!!!
    BRAVO.
    rel

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  38. I like that thought that I AM a soul with a body. And isn`t it true? When I looked down on my dead beloved dog, his anima was gone (but still lingered around for a while), and his body was just his coat. I wonder where it went. It can`t just have dissolved, do you think? So strange, death.

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  40. Sounds like an angel - but would that be the angel of death of life, I wonder.

    Great idea for a poem and excellently well handled.

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  41. Too much death in my world lately so I'm just not going to think about it right now. :-)

    Di
    The Blue Ridge Gal

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  42. "Is the sum of our parts less than our whole?" Fantatic!!

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  43. Yes, I’d heard that too. I think it was on an old CSI. (Who says you can’t learn stuff from TV?) What I want to know is how they worked that out. I’ve a mental picture of a pile of scientists standing round some poor bloke on a set of scales waiting on his dying so they can clock the difference in micrograms. But that's just me. Good poem.

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  44. Fascinating notion, isn't it--21 grams. Love the poem, Willow!

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  45. uh ohh!.... my head could be in fear of 'sploding!... how could you end a poem with such a mind blowing question!?.. sterling stuff! :-D

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  46. I've witnessed enough death these last few years to last a lifetime...an honor to witness the last breath of a soul departing...light as a feather it floats above the room in a sweet aura of completion...it is finished...it is finished!

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  47. A thought provoking poem of the flight of a soul into eternity.

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  48. well, me, i thought this was far, far better than 21g. i like dthat heavier than air line

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  49. Some very deep thoughts and questions.. interesting how you have used the weight aspect and very clever.

    Christine

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  50. Hello Willow,

    Intriguing topic for my return. Could we ever know the weight of a life force? Good poem.

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  51. It has a really philosophical sort of wit to it, this piece. And yet, it's deeper than your think.

    Well done!

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  52. Nicely paced and thought out - it's an interesting idea, that a soul might actually weigh a few grams.

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  53. Great the way it builds up to the question to which, I guess, we all hope the answer is yes.

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  54. Eryl, absolutely. In my opinion, the sum of simply our bodily parts, is far less than the whole.

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  55. Hell of a way to lose a few grams!
    Very thought provoking - the question you rightly identify - where does it go?

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  56. I keep coming back to your piece Willow. It seems so simple but draws me back and back. It's just got a touch of something special.

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  57. Lovely willow, beautiful use of language and sophisticated, echoing, rhyming and I love the opening and closing questions.
    A probing poem, really enjoyed it.

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  58. Good one, Willow. I often wonder the same thing.

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  59. Nice treatment of the TFE's theme, & nice take on your own prompt, too! The 21 grams idea is interesting, tho as I understand it, the early 20th century research that led to the idea was not very scientific.

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  60. There is the romantic answer and there is a scientific answer. For this post I go for the romantic answer. Something so wondrous cannot and should not be measured. Very good writing. Better than that. Excellent.

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  61. always wise and asking such important questions-thank you!

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  62. John, no, the research wasn't scientific in the least, but I love the romantic notion. My muse liked it, anyway!

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  63. Ah, yes, the 21 grams notion.

    I wonder where that came from, anyway...

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  64. You put into words the very question we long to know but never quite know how to say it. Beautifully done Willow

    Joanny

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  65. So thought provoking, Willow. I'm drawn back to the Seth Material by Jane Roberts with your poem. ( you familiar with Jane/Seth??)

    Measurable by a Nanjing weight? Probably not, but by our intuition, most assuredly so.

    Rick

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  66. I wonder which is which but only briefly.

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  67. Interesting! You say 'kill two birds with a stone', while we say 'kill two rabbits with a stick'. Allways the poor animals on the hands of humans... :-)

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  68. Rick, I just looked up Jane Roberts and now I am intrigued!

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  69. JM, I know. Those poor animals of ours always get the raw end of the deal.

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  70. Great poem, Willow. Each line weighs heavy, like these ones, "Can human scales/
    detect the absence/
    of a soul?"

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  71. Weighing the soul..I saw that movie too..the poem is universal, one must think about it..and conclude? Ah, that's the question!

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  72. Incredible, that's all I'm sayin'.

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  73. I thought this was one of your best ones Willow - I wonder if bodies are actually weighed before and after.

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  74. oh this is SO good!!!
    thank you so much for stopping by and commenting.

    warm smiles,

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  75. Willow...you can say a lot with just a few stanzas, anybody ever told you that? And you say rather lyrical and imaginative things, too. Hard to coordinate. Well done.

    I've nominated you for an award over at my blog...

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  76. Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments, my bloggy friends. It's always so encouraging to share my stuff with you. xx

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  77. Interesting thought.

    Is the soul the software?

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  78. I think it is impossible to measure. I guess because it is meant to be the essence of the soul that leaves us we cannot measure it in any way presently known. A profound poem.

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  79. Willow, that's not only beautiful, it's disturbingly thought provoking.
    EXCELLENT!!!!

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)