Friday, September 7, 2007

Poetry Friday: sweet nothings


sweet nothings


What bitter black pearls
do you feed me? Each word

stings my lips as you coil
a necklace of desire within

my mouth. I would that they were
stones, easy to spit out

and not such chained smoothness

that I pull them out,
over and over, to taste

the tang of praise
against my tongue.

----Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved)

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Semicolon

9 comments:

  1. "the tang of praise". I like that phrase. I also read and re-read, loving the rhythm.

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  2. Now, that's just full of evocative, intense, meaty stuff that stays with you a while. Such wonderful metaphors.

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  3. Evocative is exactly the word I was going to use ....

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  4. Wow, Sara. Praise is a double-edged sword, isn't it?

    Beautiful.

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  5. Bittersweet, I should think. I've never been comfortable with praise myself. Brava.

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  6. I'm with the others here -- evocative, excellent rhythm and turns of phrase.

    It's no wonder you like Anne Compton so much -- your use of imagery is often similar (different images, but the same way with words!)

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  7. My my, that's quite good! One of the best original poems I've seen on a Poetry Friday.

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  8. Thanks, all. You know, I realized that in posting this poem about needing/wanting/
    loving/hating praise, I've put myself in the position of needing/wanting comments on it.

    See why I despise/love those sweet nothings so?

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  9. Another masterpiece, Sara. You've nailed that deep ambivalence we're often not even conscious of.

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