Ouroboros

Everything makes less sense to me than I wish it did.

instead of just watching it end,

these fingers traced across the dusty morning
and pinched together tightly at the corners
with every intent to peel back the sky
and fold the world over onto itself
(like paper into an airplane)
or at least far enough to make sense of the symmetry.

maybe it will float like we did!
over those blades of grass and bedsheets--
all wrinkled and sun-starved, respectively
now that we've grown up and got everything backwards--
but maybe it will navigate them a little better
and get to watch everything end where it started

instead of just watching it end.

Reviews

[Greg Close]

That is a really fine poem. It's beautiful to read, it's stuffed full of wonderful images and metaphors and probably an allegory or two I'm not even smart enough to discern, but the most striking thing is that with all of that inside, the poetry itself never pauses, never stutters. The art doesn't get in the way of the beauty, and vice versa - and that's a rare thing.

[Daniel Atkinson]

F*****g powerful, man. That's the only way I can say it. Second stanza is pure genius. Makes me wonder how I can possibly come close to writing like that.

[anne p. murray- LadeeAn..]

Such a unique writing; the rhythm flows smoothly, easily. The antiquity and symbolism of the serpent gnawing it's tail to sustain life, and entering the ongoing cycle of rebirth, renewal; Ying and Yang. Mystikal and Magikal

[NoneOfYourBusiness akaK..]

ouroboros~ my most beloved of complexities in the systematic universe~
we are cyclical creatures~ flesh drips~ bone flakes~ spirit moves underground~reemerges with the coax of past and present conjoining to lure us back into now~


fold the world over onto itself
(like paper into an airplane)
or at least far enough to make sense of the symmetry.

these lines~ pure magik

[Nobody.]

great movement back to the beginning of the end of the beginning of the end. The mind picture painted by the 1st stanza is insanely wonderful. The rest was good, but that beginning knocked it out of the park. well done.
cheers1

[OT]

I love the first stanza! peel and fold the sky like paper into an aeroplane!! such a great line! and then the circular or indeed uroboric "now that we've grown up and got everything backwards" - great stuff as always!

[Robin]

a lesson in the metaphoric geometry of the imagination

[Kerry O'Connor]

Oh, no... you didn't.. fold the sky like a paper aeroplane. (Grits teeth...Why didn't I think of that)
The first stanza is quite simply amazing metaphoric language.
And so sad to get everything backwards as adults, when really, it's all so simple.

[Emily B]

I read the title, then the poem, then the title, then the poem again . . .

it is tall work