Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Scaffolding Inside You by Olena Kalytiak Davis

The Scaffolding Inside You
By Olena Kalytiak Davis

Your thoughts have hung themselves from nails
like workshirts.

The sky has stopped
offering you reasons to live and your heart is the rock
you threw through each window
of what's deserted you, so you turn
to the burnt out building inside you: the scaffolding
overhead, the fallen beams,
the unsound framework;

according to the blue that's printed on the inside of your arms
you have no plans, no plans
uncovered, or uncovering: the offing is emptying,

the horizon empty

now that your sanity is
a tarp or a bedsheet
in the rough hands of the wind,

now that everything is hooded
in drop cloth.

It didn't happen
overnight. Or maybe it did:

your heart, the rock;
your soul, the Gothic barn.

You've even started envying the flowers their stems.

Will the Norther let up?

Will the moon ever again be so full of itself
that that ragged barn will fill with light, through its tin-covered roof?

You should bury more than the dead.
You should try harder.
You should give up.

From:  "And Her Soul Out of Nothing"


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I've swept my house clean and am starting over.  ~Marion

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"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."  ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden

13 comments:

Mama Zen said...

A perfect read for me today!

Marion said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. xo

Ed Pilolla said...

surrender

Snowbrush said...

I am so sorry about your blog problems, but am delighted that I get to be your very first follower on your new and improved blog! YAY!!!

Marion said...

Ed, me too. I love Ms. Davis's poetry so much. xo

Snow, YAY!! You're my very favorite Mississippi native next to my Mama & Elvis. Welcome. xo

Ed Pilolla said...

i like the gray a lot here. i had gray up on my blog for a while and liked it a lot. i settled with an eggplant-plum, but these things aren't permanent:)

Wine and Words said...

Oh, how I remember that one. A good book and a great poem. I find myself there in that scaffolding a lot lately...just teetering on giving up and letting go, becoming a phantom board in the basement. These seasons of life, like floors of a house...but like Ed says...these things aren't permanent.

Your new place is pretty :)

Ben Ditty said...

Why the new place? I like it though it took me a while to find and I feared you had stopped blogging when the old link didn't work and I was sad. But now I'm happy :)

Marion said...

Ed, I'm still learning the 'Advanced' button on the template page. But it's gray for now, subject to be any color or font in the rainbow. :-)

Annie, I'll be teetering soon, like tomorrow after my trip to Albertson's. Thanks for the research. When you need an expert opinion, you go to an expert, I always say. Tee-hee. Love you!!!

Ben, it's a long story, but let's just say I decided to redecorate and leave it at that. May or may not repost some of my old stuff. I knew you'd find me!! xo ;-)

Phoenix said...

I was very confused when I followed the link to your old blog and found nothing! I'm so relieved that I used all my Nancy Drew-like abilities to go through the blogs that I know you follow alongside me and connect to your blog off one of your comments. Phew! Don't take your poetry away from me just yet!

"You should bury more than the dead." - best line of the poem. Wow.

Serena said...

Glad you got the "missing blog" problem fixed, and thanks for the "road map." The redecorating looks mighty pretty.:)

Marion said...

Phoenix, I meant to send you an email...thank God for your Nancy Drew tendencies, my sweet friend. I'll be reposting lots of poems from the old blog. Hugs & Love!!

SJ, it's good to see you. Thanks for the compliment. It's a work in progress...xo

quid said...

I got here! And loved the new look.

Happy Turkey Day!

quid