Seeds and miracles
A mechanical spirit
The Father, The Mother,
Sons of steel, Daughters of the revolution
The will to pause
At dawn, in the mist, or ruins
-to toast, sing, genuflect
Pity like some thing in the street
Pride like some thing in the mirror
A stick to carry remorse, regret
Virgin wool pristine with the memory of youth
Old rags sour with age
Layers of knowledge, upon knowledge, upon knowledge
-mortar between bricks laid in endless echoing vaults
And in these recesses, where nothing can touch, light, or hold sway,
Can we know how much a man contains?
*The title is taken from The Hemorrhage by Stanley Kunitz
This is the latest version of a list poem I have reworked many times over.
The Bar is open!
We Know How Much A Man Contains*
09 Thursday Jan 2014
Posted in poems
Poetry on the run 
only if we take the time to really get into the grout and understand the bricks or why they were laid…no we wont…smiles…but we can….pretty cool list poem man….
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Thanks Brian.
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this poem had depth and layers – reflecting your work.
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Reflective and thought-provoking… love the ending.
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A seed and a miracle ~ Your question in the end is food for thought ~ Thanks for sharing ~
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Beautiful.. each line a new layer.. like those layers of knowledge.
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each of us carries so many layers and seeds and if we take time to get to know someone really, there’s much to discover…beautifully penned
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Those sour old rags tends to hide the rest in many cases… But there is always so much more.
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This is sweet….you used the form well here..love the title!
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Like looking over the stuff collected in an old shed–we are a hodgepodge of different desire, experiences, tendencies, etc. Those dark corners are forever interesting and unfathomable. Excellent work!
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NIce use of the list form. Each of us has so much potential if only we would stop to see it.
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To start with, Kunitz is one of my favorite poets. He was a remarkable person. And your use of the list poem works so well, especially in that the form doesn’t distract from the poetry.
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You have used the form well for your exploration of what a man may contain. But in the end, we always get back to the question you ask in your closing line. Can we ever know?
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Excellent list poem – reread it and reread and reread it again – t’is quite a work of art.
Love the words and the question posed. It is quite brilliant.
Anna :o]
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I liked how this built upon each line… it became more powerful
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The effect is very nice – the more we know, that we don’t know, the more we know.
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There’s a strong contrast between the title and the last line. I think that contrast really makes this work…moving from the “we know” to the “there’s so much going on, how CAN we possibly know?” Great poem
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Gotta lay those bricks and mortar just right…and who can? Excellent poem, love the movement from knowing to realising just how much we don’t know. Thank you.
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My jaw hit the floor when I saw this was a list poem! You should photograph that amazing stack of books!
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