Thanks again to Magpie Tales (http://www.magpietales.blogspot.com/) for bringing this poem up from my memory. It was inspired by the photo below it, courtesy of photographer Louanne Watley's Evelyn Series. Of all the bones, these the most eloquent, lying upturned on the windowsill, holding a woman's life mapped in their grasp, every pulse-beat her heart's story.  (photo credit: Louanne Watley) The following poem is from my volume Catching Light (LSU Press), based on Louanne's series of photos documenting the last months of a woman who wished to be call Evelyn. Or Eve.
Vanity |
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Without handsa woman would stand at her mirrorlooking back only,not touching, for how could she? Eyelid. Cheek. Earlobe. Neck-hollow. The pulse points that wait to be dusted with jasmine or lavender. The lips she rubs rose with a forefinger. She tends the image she sees in her glass, the cold replication of woman, the one who dared eat from her own hand the fruit of self-knowledge. | ||
15 comments:
Breath-taking, Kay. So very eloquent. I love the tie in with Mother Eve.
Oh! one of my favorites of all...
Lovely and poignant; very sweet.
This is just too marvelous for words, Kay. The photo is lovely and so perfect.
love that last line of your magpie...mapped...magnificent.
Beautiful..a woman waiting, a woman watching..all of us, I think...Thank you...
Vicki, these poems that came from the photos really unlocked something resonant for me. Kathryn, I know you know how that goes. That resonance/vibration can keep us humming...
Sun Dance Hill, thank you. I've always wanted something poignant in my poems; sheer cleverness isn't enough, but then I've never been that clever. Just give me dulce, sweet, sweet!
My dear Willow, your comments always make my day, as do all the Magpie followers' responses. I wish you could see all these photos. Maybe I'll post them! Maybe you will write some poems from them????
Brian, I've been fascinated for a long time by the mapwork of palmistry--also phrenology, etc. How the body gives a reading of the interior, if you know how to interpret it, or think you do. It's probably a lot like other forms of reading the life journey--runes, for example, which I've been looking into. I love the poetry of these various ways of inseeing.
Lyn, the waiting and watching are where the art is born, I often think. Maybe we are too busy these days for the waiting, which is such a huge loss for art and the spirit.
Thank you for visiting me and Evelyn!
"these the most eloquent" So true for the hand is the connection with which we comfort and care for each other. What could be more eloquent than that. I too loved the "mapped... pulse-beat". Wonderfully moving.
i really love "every pulse-beat her heart's story." And things like reading palms are fascinating. I had a book on it once :) i apparently study everything!
Remember reading a story about the way Kathryn Hepburn picked something up off a table and it totally transformed a scene.
That hand on the windowsill is so expressive but most of us would miss it.
Fine poem, than you for sharing...
...rob
Image & Verse
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