twin Novembers, haunt,
infiltrate my no-man’s land
with roulettes of heaven
and pick-up sticks. Not quite
midnight and not yet noon,
linear sentinels play dead, thin,
right smack-up against
each other, head to head.
Four firecrackers stay late
and contemplate a digital
match, then flip about-face,
bang-bang-bang all over the place.
Do these doppelgangers craft
the eternal yes? They taunt
to keep me guessing, these shafts
of grace, in the corner of the room.
Tess Kincaid
November 2010
Would you like me to read it to you?
Would you like me to read it to you?
love it when you read to us!!
ReplyDeleteelegant.
i can't wait to see what inspiration next year brings when we will have 11:11 11.11.11
I've already written my 2000 words today so might cook something up for this later tonight. I might not have the time to do the rounds though...
ReplyDeleteNot quite winter, late fall; more and more darkness, some light; hint of life, some death;...interesting the matches you conjure, these ghostly counterparts.
ReplyDeleteDear Willow, As always I am struck by the depth of meaning and interest as evidenced in your poems. Beautifully read.
ReplyDeleteWillow,
ReplyDeleteA nervous portent waiting, waiting to catch the aftermath of the explosion.
Reminds me of the Andy William's song: "Almost there."
rel
Love your voice.
It is always a pleasure to scroll through your blog to see what you've been up to lately, and I marvel to see how you've grown since I first walked through the door of Willow Manor and found a fantastic place full of ghost stories, your love for movies, art, books, good food and poetic inspirations... as always, you inspire me, thank you.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes,
Laura.
I must read a number of times for the poem to open for me. and then, wow. Now, love hearing you read. I know nothing much but assume you must make a podcast on some sort of device like an MP3 player and then upload it to the program???
ReplyDeleteSuki, yes, just a simple mic and the program. Then you have to use a third party host, like Divshare.
ReplyDeleteDeep and very meaningful...
ReplyDeleteintriguing walls
quite pretty. i've taken to listening to these first, with closed eyes, then rereading.
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! I will be back, using my laptop, to listen.
ReplyDeleteThese lines were especially resonant for me:
>> linear sentinels play dead, thin,
>> right smack-up against
>> each other, head to head.
Read my Magpie here.
I really enjoy hearing you read your poetry. I find the whole 11:11 thing fascinating.
ReplyDeletewonderful! Another great poem, Tess!
ReplyDelete11 has always been my absolute favorite number - but I've never had the words to say why...
ReplyDeleteThis is it:
"Do these doppelgangers craft
the eternal yes"
Wonderful, Willow!
Again a beautiful read and listen, all the lines were so well written, it is hard to pick out one only.
ReplyDeleteLoved your podcast, for me in cold Ireland, your voice reminded me of sunshine.
Lovely, Willow.
ReplyDeleteI see where you explained to Suki about posting a reading, but my voice is awful, so it's a good thing I don't understand how to do it. LOL
Wonderful that you can do it, however!
-- K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
Hearing you read adds immeasurably to your written words - it's not always so with poets.
ReplyDeleteI love how you interpret your photos. this is wonderful and i want to hear you read it but I can;'t see a link on this end? Weird, eh? hmm...will try to refresh page and look for it again.
ReplyDeleteThose haunting eleven's, all standing at attention warning the eve of something, I can't help but notice when they cross my path. Lovely poetry, as always.
ReplyDelete11 a mytic number full of cryptic meanings. Loved your poem. Love the image. The eleventh hour, the eleventh step. Hmmmm
ReplyDelete"They taunt
ReplyDeleteto keep me guessing, these shafts
of grace, in the corner of the room."
Love this poem, the enigmatic elevenness about it, it's tight & just right.
Terrific piece. Somehow when I posted
ReplyDeleteit on my site, and listened to you read
it, I kept flashing on the twin towers,
those behemoth elevens that stood so
proudly for their time, no replaced with
statues and shafts of light, they have
become /linear sentinels play dead/
and the hooker line for me was
/Do these doppelgangers craft the
eternal yes/, for it swings me into
an e.e. cummings mood.
Glenn, I couldn't get the twin towers out of my mind when I was writing this. I tried to steer clear of actually mentioning them, since I didn't want them to be the impetus of the piece.
ReplyDeleteW/T,
ReplyDeleteSome really good phrasing in here:
'twin Novembers', 'Not quite midnight/and not yet noon', the quick buried rhyme of 'flip about face, bang-bang-bang all over the place', 'shafts of grace'.
You definitely have an ear, one I like.
(Now that you mention 9/11, I begin to see some of that emerge -- but you're right in not wanting it at the forefront at all. Was that the 'collision' hour?)
When I hear you read, it's as if I'm in the 'workshop presentation room' with you, colleague.
Trulyfool
Beautiful, crafted poem willow, taking the exterior and making it interior and intense. I think that's the first time I've heard you read.
ReplyDeleteThank you
I'm just coming to the close of Sebastian Faulks' 'Birdsong', and then I read this. You really are very good, willow, and your reading, the icing on the cake.
ReplyDeleteHauntingly beautiful piece Willow. Great choice for this week's prompt.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you will read more of your poetry here in future Magpies. Thank you
ReplyDeleteMartin, I've had Birdsong on my must read list for quite a while. Did you like it?
ReplyDeleteTruly, thank you. I'm quite honored to be considered a colleague.
ReplyDeleteSuch beautiful words.
ReplyDeleteAh! I enjoyed hearing your read this piece! Thanks for the inspiration, Willow.
ReplyDeleteI love hearing you read ... can only imagine you as mother reading at bedtime.
ReplyDeleteThis is so very well written it is meant to keep and to be read often.
ReplyDeleteNot quite midnight and not yet noon is a zinger. Do you have a book of poems I may purchase?
Wonderful poem, as always!~
ReplyDeleteTechno, not yet. But I'm in the process of submitting manuscripts to publishers. :^)
ReplyDeletewow! i'm glad to know you. steven
ReplyDeleteWhat a clever take. I must admit I'm having trouble deciding what the pic is :) Your poem has helped. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely piece and even more so, when you read. I read it several times before, I listened. I like them both. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSue, it's the number eleven on the face of my grandmother's old kitchen clock. (plus a little photoshopping)
ReplyDeleteThe elevens are truly fascinating and puzzling!
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful!
ReplyDeleteIt's a fine poem in the first place, but to have you read it to us is such an added bonus. You sound just as I thought you would.
ReplyDeleteI love hearing you read your work. This was an especially deep piece; I read it several times.
ReplyDeleteOh, I enjoyed hearing your voice. Of course, now I am wondering how you did this.
ReplyDeleteBack to try to be the first poem to win 10thDoM, eh? About time. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love this. On many levels. It had more of an effect in choosing a Magpie link than the actual prompt did.
Loved this.
ReplyDeleteNot quite
midnight and not yet noon,
linear sentinels play dead, thin,
right smack-up against
each other, head to head.
I marvel at where these words come from, Willow.
How interesting! I love the firecracker comparison.
ReplyDeletethis is just straight up fantastic..a standing ovation with a tall cool glass of lemonade.
ReplyDeleteLovely, as always... the no man's land of time...
ReplyDeleteWowie intense! this just grabs at the soul and twists! Wonderful work Willow!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant..so nuanced and listening to the reading proves the quality even more!!
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw the image I knew it would suit the 10thDom muse although who chose that rubbish? Great tie in, two birds, one stone. Awesome start. "Linear sentinals" indeed.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Having you read it made it so much more powerful. Perhaps I'll work up the courage to do that myself.
ReplyDeleteHaunting imagery that clings and surrounds. Filmy as smoke, firm as a mirror.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed hearing your reading. The words flowed on the paper, but even more in your speech. (Was that difficult to do?)
ReplyDeleteI knew there was a reason why I have made it a practice to not read other magpies before posting my own. I feel wrung from the emotion of this poem and spun out by mouse's comment about the lls of next year! Can I...will I...use these as my excuses to not write this week? Quite likely!
ReplyDelete(I looked at the prompt there at Tenth Daughter and think your poem is perfect for it.)
Reads powerfully off the page, sounds even better in the ear!
ReplyDeleteSo very nice, reading along. Welcome to the 10thDOM. -J
ReplyDelete11:11 is my husband's and my secret time. We call it "leboon leboon". Whenever we look at the clock and it's 11:11, we call or text or yell into the next room (whichever's appropo) and yell "LEBOON LEBOON!" and then we kiss.
ReplyDeletesoo good to hear you! off in the corner of the room.
ReplyDeletewow. you never fail to amaze me. btw i posted one of your poems in my blog. i actually, sort of featured you as one of the bloggers i follow. i hope you don't mind. thanks.:)
ReplyDeleteMaria, thank you. I am very honored. I'm glad you made a connection with "Infinity". xx
ReplyDeleteMarcheline, that is just too cute! :)
ReplyDeleteI really like the mental symmetry your poem evokes in my mind. 11:11 - so simple in their structure, and yet somehow strong and powerful.
ReplyDeleteDear Tess: How fertile the mind's imagination to create from inanimate objects this poem! Dramatically read with just a hint of calming mid-west zingy twang! Yep, I can see 'em exploding too!
ReplyDeleteLove, love, LOVE that you and Suki are now recording your personal readings of your poems. It's wonderful to hear your voices!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
♥ Robin ♥
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just me, TK, but this a damn fine anti-WW1 poem.
I can't actually find the words to describe how I feel reading and listening to your amazing piece. I am continually struck by how you always manage to catch the atmosphere and lay out the imagery with such elegance of words.
ReplyDeletePhil, I didn't specifically have WWI in mind when I wrote it, but now that you mention it, it does fit perfectly.
ReplyDeletenice...shafts of grace in the corner of the room...november...my month of entrance...enjoyed ...bkm
ReplyDeletenice...shafts of grace in the corner of the room...november...my month of entrance...enjoyed ...bkm
ReplyDeleteTwin Novembers, shafts of grace, there is so much in this, and more as I read others' comments (had WWI, missed the towers)and read this again. Lovely. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteGreat cadence. Love hearing it in your voice. Whenever I see an eleven from now on I will think of pick-up sticks.
ReplyDeleteYou have made beautiful art with your words. Your work has me thinking what I could make of 11:11 and the answer is,"not much". You really have a way with words.
ReplyDeleteThere is such depth found within your poetry... so graceful in itself. Love hearing you put life in the words, lifting them from the pages.
ReplyDeleteI can't really add much to the 76 comments above this one, except to say that I enjoyed reading your poem, and as a new(ish) blogger, I think I learned from it.
ReplyDeleteOui
ReplyDeletei'm born 11/12, so i'll pretend this one is for me.
ReplyDeletethanks
Haunting poem, it was both beautiful and intriguing to read.
ReplyDeleteNice and winsome, pairs of elevens, I might have guessed. 11 is a good # to me, month of my birth....Doppelgangers, have not heard that term in a long time....I enjoy hearing you read too!
ReplyDeleteInteresting - so many ways to illustrate 11:11.
ReplyDeleteWillow, another great delivery!
ReplyDeleteEsp. loved this line- 'Do these doppelgangers craft
the eternal yes?'
You do use (and say) your words beautifully. This is a fabulous piece.
ReplyDeleteI hate the sound of my own voice, it's like 'an auld sweetie wife's' (which here in Scotland is not complementary!). Yours was a pleasure to hear!
haunt to keep you guessing,
ReplyDeletethat line keeps your reader lingering...
lovely magpie,
Thanks for sharing.
Just wanted you to know I did TRY to come up with a poem, jotted lots down.. but this one was difficult for me. I did stretch my mind and I learned more about the number 11. Triple 11's next year... I am looking forward to the next Magpie
ReplyDeleteCryptic and very very clever!!!
ReplyDelete"They taunt
to keep me guessing, these shafts
of grace, in the corner of the room."
That was SOMETHING!!! Always keeping one guessing... what's next...
I love the title!! Why? Cuz I have this innate ability of checking the digital clock when the digits are the same! Like 11:11, 2:22, 5:55 and so on... pretty darned creepy! I am almost glad there are not more than 60 minutes in an hour.. Else I would be seeing the devil's number there... phheww!!
love it! and love this photo-gorgeous imagery
ReplyDeleteWillow this is truly amazing...i love every line, and i especially love hearing you read it!! :-)
ReplyDeletetwin elevens.. not yet midnight or noon.. the almost there feeling!
ReplyDeleteps - I love your Pessoa's quote - and LOVE that you like him!!
I have the best gentle readers in the world. You fuel my muse, dear ones. Thank you for your generous comments. xx
ReplyDeleteSimply awesome. Love your voice.
ReplyDelete