It is the dawning of the age of the introverts...

[Emily Bronte]

Polishing

I sift my words until they shine
bright as diamonds from the pressure.
But I leave a small speck of grime
in one corner to remind me
where it all started.

[Emily Bronte]

Sarah, Karin, Dunc, thank you so much!

Only a week to go!

Going to try and do a massive round of fluff catch up over this weekend.

[Jee Leong]

Emily, "What They Said" wields its literary allusions powerfully. It's strange, this monotonous revolution of days, when the sun should just stop to acknowledge the horror of what's happening. An imaginative twist on the meaning of "Travel Ban." "Polishing" is very wise in its ars poetica. Dirt and diamonds are cousins, after all.

[Emily Bronte]

Thanks Jee,

It means a lot that you came by again!

[Emily Bronte]

Online shopping

This pandemic is messing with my mind.
Why else would I buy toilet paper earrings
made of silver and white beads? The wait
is agonising. There are postal delays
and sometimes it seems the little tracker
on my screen will never move. Then---
AWAITING CLEARANCE-it sits in customs
for a week. After being on its way to me for five!
Then glory hallelujah!!! "ARRIVED AT FACILITY"
The little package drops into my mailbox
and there is real toilet paper on the supermarket
shelves (sometimes) and every time I wear
the earrings I enjoy a private joke,
not caring if anyone else notices or understands.

[PClem]

Sunset - I love this in its simplicity and obsessiveness. Seems I read a similar poem, years ago that was a repetitive "the drawer is open." It was also strangely compelling.
Warning - love those last two lines.
The Next Great Adventure: love this:I wonder if God blows bubbles
with us. I wonder if he blows raspberries AT us.
Travel Ban - great response.
Polishing - like that small speck of grime left as reminder.
Online Shopping - TP earrings! I guess when something becomes rare, it becomes a hot commodity, even representationally.

[Dunc]

Mari

Travel ban ─ Yes indeed, and a more intimate vision than (not) sitting in a plane for twenty hours or whatever.

Polishing ─ Ha! I seem to recall Islamic artists who when they finished something especially fine would put a little blotch on it somewhere out of respect for the idea that only God is perfect. (Perfection in my writing is not a problem I'm familiar with.)

Online Shopping ─ A private joke for a time of like-it-or-not privacy! Toilet paper earrings, though? Quel souvenir!

And yes, the last week of April ...

Regards / Dunc

[Sorella]

Mari, terve teille,

Oh can I ever relate to that!
Online shopping -- tracking parcels arriving at irregular intervals,
exciting at first, never much liked shopping as such --
but now, the idea of looking around a bookshop
or just buying a charger for your phone or a sweater without fear...
or at all!

every time I wear
the earrings I enjoy a private joke

See, we are not crazy, we can joke about it!

Keep working towards 30th April ...
and one day, hardly any risk of Covid?

Sorella

[Emily Bronte]

Thanks so much Laurie, Dunc and Karin!!!!

Five days to go.

[Emily Bronte]

April 25 2020

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old.
Not Dr. Li Wenliang, who spoke up about the virus
despite the cost. Nor the firefighters who perished
in Australia while trying to save others.
We are fighting a war and the enemy lies within.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
we will remember them.

[Emily Bronte]

Bookclub in the Time of Covid-19

My bookclub has gone online
and to borrow the book we are reading
my friend and I have to do clandestine dropoffs
on each other's front porch.

My dog barks madly when she comes to collect the book
from the mailbox and I stretch my hand over the window
wishing I could go outside and hug her.

[Donner]

Hi, Mari,

"Online Shopping" - This is what we do now, shop online and track packages. (I thought you were kidding until I googled "TP earrings" and they really are a thing.) I like The little package drops into my mailbox / and there is real toilet paper on the supermarket and N's private joke.

"April 25 2020" - the enemy lies within. Never forget.

"Bookclub in the Time of Covid-19" - Sign of our times. You might think about reworking the line breaks in S2, something like:


My dog barks madly when she comes
to collect the book from the mailbox
and I stretch my hand over the window
wishing I could go outside and hug her.

to emphasize the way N stretches her hand over the window, which I see as the crux of the poem.

Donna

[Dunc]

Mari

April 25 2020 ─ Yes, we fight, and yes, we have heroes. As gregarious primates, cooperative animals; whp live by our memories, the dead and we are never finished with each other. Memorials are part of us.

Bookclub in the Time of Covid-19 ─ Friends, dogs, books and these weird days ... and we manage to keep the wheels turning. These poems with be rather strange to look back on in times to come ─ or I hope they will.

Here comes May!

Regards / Dunc

[larryrap]

Hi Mari,

The thread is a good record of the frustrations and weirdness of the times, and the way they forced themselves on everyone's life when we had so many better things to do.
The Kick Iside is great fun with a punch especially considering your nom de plume. Kate Bush is a hero any way you look at it.
I like the deceptive simplicity of Polishing.
What They Said is wonderfully condensed and makes a serious point.
Easter Sunday has its own pace and does a fine job describing a quest for solace and balance of mind under pressure.
Let's wish for The Next Great Adventure to be the main takeaway from this rip in time.

[Emily Bronte]

The New Language

The email subject line reads
"Social distancing! Our new way
of engaging with you!" The irony
is lost in this new world.
We pick our way through paradox,
the blind leading the blind
as best we can.