a sharp thing lives
for many years at october's end.
a sharp thing asks
for quiet about the house.
no mood for tricks,
the trick of life
being enough to manage.
sharp especially should
memory fall
like a weight on a friday
as the day itself did.
dulled now
by age and time and youth
from bitter to
bitter-sweet
watching one
grow is kin
to slow forgetting.
forgetting the pain of one
forgets the joy of another.
growing up,
one grows away.
these things converse correlatively.
~*~*~*~
The body always remembers
the traumas of the heart.
Whether virtual or real,
the body remembers.
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A Prayer Like Gravity 
Dammit. DAMMIT!!!! STOP BEING SO FUCKING GOOD. Just… ugh.
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Ess Tee Oh Pee.
You are too much!
Thank you, Hannah.
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“growing up,
one grows away.”
Speechless.
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That is a phrase that is working its way into my work a lot.
I guess it’s that combo of age and time and youth that one is afflicted with as a fact of being a parent and a forty-something.
Thank you, Natalie.
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Love the contrast and progression, soft and melancholy…. Life.
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Yes, Life.
Not much more to say
yet here I am
yammering on….
Thanks A.
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Yammer clammer
Away…
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WOW. Been away too long. Effing brilliant, man.
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Thank you Susan–
And I TOTALLY “get” busy.
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…as in…
Too busy to “get busy”!
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Very nice! The body remembers and adjusts it’s shape accordingly.
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yep. whether you realize it or not. and no matter how many years it’s been, it still has the power to sneak up on me.
Thanks–
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watching one
grow is kin
to slow forgetting
Wonderful, Johnny, and so painfully true. Be well, friend~
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All part of the “big picture” though. And it’s good to see that picture, I think.
Thank you.
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It is, it is.
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“The body always remembers the traumas of the heart…” As a massage therapist and as a writer I know in my own bones just how true that statement is. Only most of us don’t put it as beautifully as you did. I will be following you! —Jadi
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Thank you so much for your kind words, Jadi. Although I have difficulty “living” this idea, it is one that is dear to my heart and informs much of my writing. I study Taiji (more difficulty here, I have fallen out of my daily practice) and have found it to have a profound impact on my ideas about poetry. My teacher speaks of the process of learning Taiji as getting to know one’s internal landscape and it seems to me that this is the same landscape that we explore in poetry. Recent reading has also convinced me that this “area” has much to do with the limbic system–that area in the brain where man meets beast, where (in Chinese philosophical parlance) Heaven meets Earth, where “spirit” and “body” collide.
As you can see, I get kind of carried away by this topic. I am working on formulating these ideas into a “perspective” on poetry.
Thank you for your interest, and there is more here about all this if you are interested. I would be pleased to tell you where.
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What a great, thoughtful response – and timely as I too practice Tai Chi. I am not good at it, but as you know that’s part of the process, to let go of a specific outcome and learn to listen to and be in the present moment. I would be very interested in any further information you care to share!
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Well, takes one to know one–your comment was thoughtful as well–
When I get a minute I’d be glad to share with you. Not so much “information” and “impressions”, this being poetry and all…
OK if I email some links to you? May take me a while to dig around this here bloggomine…
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If this is you now – can’t wait to see what you write when your’e my age young man 😉 Brilliant JCC.
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I thank you kindly, Mums.
I think perhaps that I am not as young as you might think…or perhaps I take you to be younger than you are. No need to divulge. My age will be exposed soon enough, as the end of this series will be on Tuesday and relates directly to age and time and my age…
And however it may be, I am humbled by your words and your kindness. Means ever so much to me, especially on these pieces.
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JCC – you are welcome- no we shall leave the element of age out of this for the moment by my age is on my Author Page so I can’t hide it 😦 Looking forward to the continuation then *smiles*
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Ok, so you are old enough to be me mum, but just barely. You would have been the scandalous talk of your High School…
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your mum? and Yes …Yes I was 😉
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I think you would have loved the poetry and neuroscience event I attended during LitQuake in San Francisco last week.
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Indeed! I’m currently reading “The Dark Side of Man” by Michael Ghiglieri and the research on this whole genetics/neuroscience/endocrine/lymbyc inter-relationship/amalgamation/mess has surely got my head spinning. LOTS of food for poems in all this.
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Just took a look at a synopsis of the book. Fascinating. Putting it on my TBR list. Thanks!
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Just finished “The Dark Side of Man.” Well worth a read, though I must say he comes to a few strange conclusions that I am still wrapping my head around. He seems to have an odd obsession with the Swiss and he goes all kind of pro-gun-rights. Also some of his arguments from statistics seem as though they could be a bit specious, but then I usually find arguments from statistics specious And suspicious. So I don’t necessarily draw quite the conclusions that he does, but then, I think I generally avoid hard conclusions….or was that collisions?
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Good to know. I think I’ll just cut off those branches of the tree. Thanks!
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Yep. exactly what I try to do. Ladle out some of the bath-water, retaining most of the baby. Still a good read. Really quite fascinating in fact. An eye-opener in many fabulous ways. Cheers!
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beautiful
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Thank you, Mark.
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I know that those last lines especially are so very true.
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Something I think you express so well in your work. The visceral quality of mind.
Thank you J–
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Thank you for saying that. I try to be true to that “experience.” 🙂
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…no mood for tricks….
i relate to these words…
smiles ~ hedy
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Gratified for the connection–peace
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