A Higher Larry

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Hi Larry,

An excellent start. So many great images and lines here that it's hard to pick out favourites. Love the the way "he swivels and aims" undercuts that first stanza -- courage, faith and perfection leading to violence, and the hopelessness of S3 -- the babbling old era replaced by the skeleton smile of the next. Nothing changes it seems, and this fits well with ancient dates being grown today.

Looking forward to more of the high stuff.

Matt

[5th column]

And the dead turn in their graves waiting to be revivified, tilting their gravestones in the process.

I really enjoyed these and enjoyed thinking about them in the context of the article.

Thanks for the link. I hadn’t read this elsewhere.

[larryrap]

Thanks all for the welcomes, which are very welcome!
And thanks Cameron, you're right of course about my uneven words choice, which I was tinkering with even as you wrote (with questionable results).
Thanks Brian, gentleman and friend.
Thank you Janelo - I'll make an effort to justify your response.
Matt and Neil - two staples of my poet persona. I'm delighted to hear from you both!

Looking forward to sharing symptoms with all you nominally functional but NaPo-possessed minds and hearts.

[larryrap]

2nd – The Way In is the Way Out

Two birds in the stairwell
lighting on plaster,
the ring of horizon
collapsed into a cell.

They bat over and over
at a patch of glass ceiling,
attempting to puncture
its frieze of lost sky.

Come, enter, fly through me:
my door is caved open,
and my windows are lidless
and flooded with noon.

[Scrow]

Hi,


I didn’t know the story behind the first one, but it’s fascinating and wonderful, and also all the things in between your poem describes. The picture of the graveyard is wonderful, too, the palimpsest of nature over the gravestones.


‘The way in is the way out’ gives me a fantastic visual image - the birds, the stairwell, the glass at the top of the stairwell (in my head it’s a kind of cupola) - and the figure in the doorway - silhouette, a doorway in themselves to another universe, an outside.


Good to read you again this April,




Sarah

[Alexandrite]

A man of faith strides towards perfection;
guided by heaven, he swivels and aims.

Is chilling to its core---

The graveyard & road-- so much to savor--

The strophe of Moses made my heart ache--

So lovely to read your writing again, Larry!

[BrianIsSmilingAtYou]

The Way In is the Way Out

S1 gives a sense of claustrophobia--
the stairwell, an enclosed space
ring--an encirclement, or the bounded space in which boxers or wrestlers do combat
cell, a prison

S2 continues this, with the birds battling against the ceiling
"lost sky" recalls to me the "ring of horizon"

S3 offers an escape

Is "lighting" in S1L2 meant to be "alighting"?

BrianIs AtYou

[JFN]

Larry, ‘Six Saplings’ has a fascinating backstory. I think the imagery through this is really strong, with several changes in direction to keep the reader engrossed in the whole. Personally I think that the scripture reference to (what I presume to be) the Tower of Babel, and then to Moses, giving an indication of the age of these ancient seeds is wonderful (although that is a little further back the principle remains).

There’s a great cadence to ‘The Way In…’, and the imagery of S1, particularly L3&4, is strong. ‘flooded with noon’ is a nice close too.

John

[Jee Leong]

Hi, Larry. Good to see you here. The delights of "Six Saplings" are various—psychological, theological, historical, visual, and sonic. The last question ties all the sections together. "The Way In Is the Way Out" is compactly lyrical. Not sure if the first stanza is needed.

[SP Singer]

Hello,

The Way In Is The Way Out---spare luxurious visual. I loved that the cell in L4 passed easily from a prison to a square of sun upon 2nd reading.
Fav phrase is "my door is caved open"

Thanks much,
SP

[Sorella]

Larry,
Six Saplings -- the link set the scene: enough to make your head spin already, then you take that and give us a lyrical graveyard, the perspective of Moses, and so many questions. Stunning. I will return and savour and let this sink in.

Sorella

[Barbara Jean]

Both poems are quite fine. I really enjoyed the gentle whimsy of the second. I love the image of the of the birds flying through the narrator’s eyes.

In your first, I really liked the POV and poem. I thought the comparison of then and now was self evident because of the POV and therefore not necessary to state in the last line.

Good job Larry and good luck on your NAPO.

[5th column]

The way in - I think that has potential post NaPo. At the moment it’s a visual but there’s scope to open it up, or as I once heard Mark Doty say, blow it up, line by line looking for more.

[larryrap]

Sarah - I take that as high praise from the most acutely visual of poets.
Alex, very pleased to hear that, and to have you nearby.
Brian, I value your visits and can only hope for more.
John, very kind and nourishing words, thank you.
Jee, you're a treasure and I'm grateful to share with you once more.
SP glad to know you and thanks for your generosity.
Sorella, so nice to be in your team and get your lovely responses.
Barbara Jean, you have a keen eye which I'd be a fool not to follow, thanks for the compliments.
Neil, that's sound advice, so good to learn from the pros.

[larryrap]

3rd - Global Word Vault

Surrounded by miles of shape-shifting snow
we store language
against a day of utter noise,

when voices will bounce off each other
like empty bottles in a sack,
and all sense will be lost.

Even as the residue of speech rots and drops,
its carcass worried by slobbering gods,
like acolytes we wrap words in velvet

and triple-sash them with a silver cord
to ward off the spirits of gain and desire.
“How impractical,” you say,

but something compels you to listen –
a memory, the breath of a promise unspoken,
a child’s exclamation adored into song.


Link