Defying Entropy, Nursing Brimstone

I am piling pieces to burn, cutting nail-pocked

hemlock into chunks, metal teeth sawing

 

someone else’s name from wood. I am demolishing

this house part by part, a meticulous death. Rebuilding

 

resurrecting; fresh sheets of fir and whitened trim infusing

two new souls. We sit atop a cliff watching green river

 

pass - blood through veins of earth - staring at a hungry fire

trapped by circular moss-covered standing stones. I heave

 

branches to this center pit, ceaselessly falling limbs, fingers

clutching rock as I drag them. I am a god erecting towers on

 

muddy ash, staying sentences with birch-pine smoke.

I am a goddess, wet with power, arranging broken soldiers

 

like kindling - grains of dirt under my fingernails - flaked

elm-skins swirling my head like gray, drifting souls. 

Reviews

[JT Godin]

I quite like what you did here. I'm getting thoughts of a lot of different poets here; Anne Carson, Poe, and even Homer come to mind...

There isn't much I can say about this in terms of critique. I liked it all -- the inclusion of different tree names is nice. The focus on dirt, soil, or mud, towards the end is also nice. I see some dichotomy in words such as ash, which is both a type of tree, and something that happens after combustion -- the last line where you say "gray", makes me think back to the muddy ash, and the hungry fire.

Bravo.

[Kristina Moulaison]

Thank you so much, Thomas! I really appreciate you reading and leaving your thoughts here!

[Creepy Swine Guy]

Oh my! The act of deciding ... "you die old structure that the young one might live." A Goddess complex perhaps.

I especially liked the very last line and the reference to "green river" ... "blood through veins of earth"

This is not Mr. Ridgeway's Green River, is it ... if it was, the references to life & death would be even MORE eerie!

[Kristina Moulaison]

I'm just literally tearing down a house and rebuilding it at the moment and contemplating the life cycle as I burn the old and create the new, recognizing that someone else will come behind me and do this again very soon. I noticed the "Green river" thing after I wrote it and just left it there. Thank you for reading and sharing thoughts!

[Kristina Moulaison]

And I am doing the mini work of god, being the one who destroys and creates again.

[mercy party]

Burning it all down, every piece, to rebuild. I felt the poets vigor and could really visualize the scorched landscape. A Powerful and cinematic poem. Nice!

[Kristina Moulaison]

Thanks so much...I appreciate it!