You Are Here, says the sign,
& a red arrow
indicates a dot.
This is the familiar dot
from the letter i,
from the hole
in the paper where
the compass pirouetted,
from the spots on your retina
where the sun returned
your gaze. The arrow
never quite touches it —
not because it’s too small
or too far away, but
because it’s too likely
to spill. You are here…
& you, & you, & you,
& you, & you:
the possibilites
are both endless
& predictable.
It’s a whole note, freed
from the five-line staff
to sing its monotone
song of yourself
for as long as
you’ll listen, thinking
it’s just you,
thinking you’re all alone
on this head
of a pin.
Purveyors of fine poetry since 2003.
Excellent. The extended metaphor works so well. Fine lines: ‘It’s a whole note, freed
from the five-line staff
to sing its monotone
song of yourself…’
Yep. Wonderful poem, Dave.
Thanks, guys. It wasn’t my personal favorite by a long shot, but it had one or two things I liked.
Geesh! That was truly beautiful Dave. And I didn’t even have to compete for space with those metaphoric angels, cause if they are there, they are invisible and I’m in true denial about my aloneness.
In addition to the beautiful musical quote, I love the retinal imagery where the sun returned ‘my’ gaze. Sadly, that squinting and staring we used to do as little kids now comes with a warning, and smoked glass.
BTW do you keep hard-copy of your poems? I keep flashing on all of Larry’s last 3 or 4 years going up with his hard drive and it’s an way uncomfortable sensation. I’ve a feeling I’m going to be using a lot of printer ink here
Hi Joan – Thanks for the kind words about the poem.
No, I don’t print out any of my stuff, and I admit I haven’t coped my hard disk, either. But I’m not hosting this site on my own computer, either, as I believe Larry does. And I do weekly backups of the entire Via Negativa database. So in a sense Via Negativa (and Flickr, for my photos) is my backup.