Monday, January 2, 2012

You Are A Scorching Salve




I am a tall order,
tree-high,
neatly bleeding

pollard style,
lumberjack-ravaged,
pickaxe-stark.

Your balm
soothes, burns
the lingering sting,

lip-sap applied
to skinned knees
and elbows, sticky

over wild initials
carved graffiti-soft,
forest-deep.


tk/January 2012

Listen to R.A.D. Stainforth's excellent reading:
(I say sah-ve...he says sal-ve)


image: River, Marina Moevs, 2005
Join The Mag creative writing group here.

61 comments:

  1. R.A.D. ... I love the way you exhale between Tess and Kincaid ...

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  2. Nice poem that fits the picture so well.

    I hope you have a very Happy New Year and a great 2012.

    God bless.

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  3. I love this and the photograph goes with it perfectly Tess.

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  4. your poems always is good to read. helping me develop my skills in reading between the lines. I am learning to love the language more and more...

    Hope you had a wonderful end of 2011 and a very good start of 2012!

    JJRod'z

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  5. This is gorgeous...so much said between the lines. As Suz put it, "a deep woods of metaphor" and the woods are so very lovely.

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  6. Interesting picture. Did you notice how the reflections are so much clearer than the originals.

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  7. a healing balm

    as well as

    a scorching salve...

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  8. Tess ... when you say "exhale" you clearly mean "inhale" ... I love this ambiguity in your work ...

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  9. Ah, R.A.D., inhale, exhale...you can clearly see I'm not a smoker...I'll have to admit...your puffs do make me dizzy...

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  10. You are a towering tree amongst bloggers!

    Happy New year!

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  11. Besides how well the poem works with the image, I love the hyphenations here, it's a technique I'm still trying to master, but you do it so well.

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  12. gorgeous words for such a painting!
    Happy New Year!

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  13. Great poem! It is perfect for the picture.

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  14. Nice painting
    I'm fainting

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  15. @ Semaphore Tess Kincaid is the Bitch Queen Goddess of Hyphens ...

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  16. Lovely words for a sigh of an image.

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  17. I love your perspective here... simply beautiful!

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  18. this is sooo hot Tess...
    and I think you secretly plant words in your poetry that you just want R.A.D. to say... :)

    ummm and I have my own list...

    Happy 2012

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  19. Beautiful...there is no other word suited to describe your painting and poetry. Thank you for sharing and Happy New Year to you!

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  20. Never let me record that poem you wrote about tomatoes and potatoes Tess ...

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  21. Sensual, rightly paced, erotic, staid. How did you do that?!

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  22. Sensual, rightly paced, erotic, staid. How did you do that?!

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  23. well. I need a drink. First of all, who could resist "You Are a Scorching Salve" to begin with? And then... I need a drink.

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  24. I just knew it was enchanted..........

    Lovely.....and lovely image as well.

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  25. "I am a tall order..."
    True, and you always were, Tess. :-)
    Sincere best New Year wishes.

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  26. Hyphenated erotica as our forest
    queen turns nature inside-out,
    and we loose track of where
    the focus is going, overwhelmed
    by the sensuality and the earth
    mother caresses.

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  27. Your forest is a place I would love to visit ... if only for one night.

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  28. Dear Tess: Yes the language d'art d'Tess d'Kincaid (note the cadence and space gap of exhaled air energy; clearly sexy) yes it is, your have this voice of the poet clearly coming through with each poem. I'm loving this skill and I want to try this very abstract style too. And as always read with much finesse by the ever irrascable Ronaldo A.D. his is to die for as is yours Tess! Tres bon, et tres excellent!

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  29. Gorgeous. I feel pulled into that forest. Wonderful poem to begin the New Year. Thank you. Happy happy 2012!

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  30. Lovely, especially close ( I thought.)

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  31. ,,,pick-axe stark. Wonderful

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  32. I am glad I started with your's thanks for hoasting!!!

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  33. gorgeous goregous photo. the poem too, wonderul love poem. and apropos for me at the moment as I am broken out in a rash. where is my salve???

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  34. lip-sap applied
    to skinned knees
    and elbows, sticky


    over wild initials
    carved graffiti-soft,
    forest-deep.

    those last two stanzas are just gorgeous...love how you put word together tess....

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  35. The poem and the picture suit so well.

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  36. He sounds like Snape in Harry Potter movies. Love your poems.

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  37. So beautiful.
    Happy New Year to you!

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  38. You say poTAYto--I say poTAHto.

    I never come here without something wonderful happening, something to think about, laugh over, feel 'good' about, even now-and-then...weep.

    Tess...YOU a cool cst!

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  39. tall order indeed...this was terrific

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  40. nicely done with this photo...thanks

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  41. metaphorically beautiful! the best!

    happy new year!

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  42. Forest deep indeed...this is amazing Tess....as always! :-)

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  43. As beautiful as ever Tess. Let me wish you and your family a most wonderful New Year. I have no need to ask what plans you have for the next twelve months : after all this time I know they will be the same plans as I am busy hatching here. I am certainly looking forward to reading your words and following your vision.

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  44. Thanks, everyone, it's always a pleasure...you're the best...(!)

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  45. This could melt a guy's tongue right off a frozen pump handle.

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  46. Wonderful, perfectly rendered work.

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  47. Very nice Tess. Such penetrating language... each syllable is shap and distinct and builds upon the he previous.

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  48. A scorching salve...why do people keep calling me that? ;)

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  49. Love the pen strokes in this piece.

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  50. Nice one Tess. Happy New Year.

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  51. Nice! I really liked this one! Loved the reading by R.A.D.

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  52. Double Haiku After Yuliy

    Leaving me behind
    in a field lit by starlight,
    you found him in lights,
    Colossus astride
    Broadway’s beckoning glitter.
    Who would dare compare?

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  53. Loved the picture, drunken with the poem. Lovely.

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