Sunday, May 6, 2012

Rivers

R.A.D. Stainforth rusticating at the River Irwell...



Yours is elegant,
Limpid in hairpins;
Addressed formally,
With a proper honorific.

Mine is a turgid native,
Wild story-teller,
Straight as an arrow,
Called by her maiden name.

Both channel to mouths,
Hungry for an open sea;
Fresh tongues craving salt,
The mutual waves.


tk/May 2012


image: River Irwell by R.A.D. Stainforth

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67 comments:

  1. Really lovely poem, Tess. One of my favorites of yours. K.

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  2. This is spectacular, Tess! Life, erotic life!

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  3. Perfect Tess. Beautiful.

    Hairpins... sigh... everybody's let their hair down.

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  4. Oh ... how water can invest one's emotions. ;)

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  5. Ah yes; young or old, straight and curved we all crave the same release.
    rel

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  6. Well done... all with the tongue.

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  7. This is a good poem, Audenesque in some ways.

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  8. Lovely, Tess. "limpid in hairpins." Exquisite.

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  9. Gorgeous, Tess. The middle stanza speaks the loudest.

    rosemarymint.wordpress.com

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  10. So lovely. I read, went off to do stuff. Came back read again then listened to R.A.D reading. It sounds so lovely being read aloud.

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  11. Yes, the poem sounds super aloud, too!

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  12. z6/the-river/">the river</az

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  13. Love the combo of reading and here a nice Englishmen voice reading this hot poem to me.
    http://leah-jamielynn.typepad.com/blog/

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  14. I. Love. It. You never disappoint, Tess.

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  15. This is one of my favorites, just lovely. Tess.

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  16. A river song, a water lullaby, down
    by the riverside, you lie the pure
    poetics down, and we love it;
    nice transpositions from rivers
    of note to rivers of quiet elegance;
    a fun write today.

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  17. Diversity, in rivers, in places, in people. I love this.

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  18. After three reads, I'm still intrigued by the images and the different levels of my understanding(?) ... beautiful piece.

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  19. i love the concept of two rivers yours and mine. a most erotic poem. and lovely photos.

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  20. this is a beauty tess, two personalities of a river coming together.

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  21. Just wonderful. Thank you for sharing it with us.

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  22. i'll take the wild one...smiles...tongues hungry for salt indeed...ha...nice touch...

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  23. Hey, I am teaching poetry to my first graders starting tomorrow. Any tips?

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  24. Gary, show them how lovely certain words are, when paired together...

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  25. I just love this. Living rivers, different, but both craving salt and sharing new life as mutual waves.

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  26. This has to be one of my favorites of yours. Sensational write.

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  27. This is so wonderfully done...I love rivers!

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  28. I love your poem. Two rivers run through it. Wonderful contrasts and commonalities. It is the first time I have ever thought to envision a river as a tongue. It works so well!! Thank you for sharing your artistically, creative ideas, always. =D

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  29. beautiful, Tess.. really beautiful.. :)

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  30. Such a nurturing poem, with inspiring images....and the I enjoyed the video as well!

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  31. I like that phrase 'fresh tongues craving salt'. It describes the river seeking the sea beautifully.

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  32. Very nice. For me, the whole piece hinges on the line, "Fresh tongues craving salt."

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  33. beautiful piece again Miss Tess!..

    JJRod'z

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  34. beautiful beautiful poem -really great language images rhythm flow- a gem

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  35. I really like this a lot. I think we need to take a research trip to see just how alike & different each river is :)

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  36. This is excellent, Tess! Every last word of it, but I really do love that last stanza with the mouths and the salt.

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  37. That which is similar, that which is different, converging commonality. Beautifully constructed.

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  38. Love this and all the pictures that flashed through my brain when I read it:)

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  39. Beautifully put...different, but in reality...the same. Another big winner. Vb

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  40. Love where you take me ... where you take all of us!!

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  41. Very nice imagery. And we all have our particular rivers of memory.

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  42. It sounds great! Akin to reading aloud by oneself. Great write, Tess!

    Hank

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  43. This really has the quality of water..it flows, fills in all the spaces..a beautiful journey..

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  44. Dear Tess: Did enjoy this rendering of parallel lines; river lives. All the acoutrements of perfection is this poem.

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  45. A Caduceus wand of sensuality. Lovely.
    How do you post a you tube video to your blog, and not just a link ?

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  46. what an image you selected for the post.

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  47. Nicely done. Leaves a warm, satisfied feeling.

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  48. Kutamun, at YouTube, under the video you want to post, click "embed", then copy and paste the blue highlighted code into your blog post as HTML. Get it? Got it? Good.

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  49. Nice reflections, "The Tale of Two Rivers?" Rivers inspire me.

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  50. Wonderful piece: so elegant and packing so much meaning into its few short lines.

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  51. Oh! This stopped me in my tracks. Just incredible. Especially:
    "Called by her maiden name."
    and
    "Both channel to mouths,
    Hungry for an open sea;"

    LOVE the metaphor here, the aligning of self with river bend. Just perfect.
    de
    whimsygizmo.wordpress.com

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  52. Puts me in mind of that old Doris Day song, "The Three Rivers"... you can hear it here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaflYAzp4Jg

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  53. Exquisite!! Your closing is just pure magic, Tess!!

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  54. The mutual waves indeed....love this Tess!! :-)

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  55. so very different and yet to the same ending :-)

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  56. Both channel to mouths,
    Hungry for an open sea;
    Fresh tongues craving salt,
    The mutual waves.

    Can't get enough of this !

    Rivers will never be the same again.

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  57. Fresh tongues craving salt... tasty.:)

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  58. Thank you dear readers. Your weekly encouragement means so very much to me. I know I always say it, but you are the best. You really are.

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