I look through flashes
dreaming of vision in the
time walk of blindness.
Losing the glory of lilacs
to a pinhole, I pluck color
from images to paste
in my memory.
A beggar’s glimpse of moonlight
is the prayer I speak to stay
midnight’s encroachment…
A faint light pirouettes across
the milky pond of my iris.
©Susie Clevenger 2018
©Susie Clevenger 2018
I had an eye scare this week. All is well, but I must say it was a bit traumatic. I wrote this from my perspective of anxiousness and watching a family member’s struggle with blindness.
This is a bit like what I was trying to get at in my own 55--the decrease in vision writ large by age. (I have had this condition, and it is so similar in symptoms to retinal detachment --ie, instant blindness, that it is terrifying til it is diagnosed--those flashes! Surreal.) Your title phrase is so elegant and wastes not a word, as always, and your final 'pirouette' is perfect. Thanks for playing despite the distractions of life and the crazy times we inhabit.
ReplyDelete'time walk of blindness' - a sobering, inspired line ~
ReplyDeleteSusie, what I most admire about your work is how every stanza builds around an amazing image, so that it is difficult to choose a favourite - I enjoy the whole experience as it unfolds.
ReplyDeleteNice write
ReplyDelete" I pluck color
from images to paste
in my memory."
Yes we need remember in our development progression.
much love...
This is so poigant! Especially this "Losing the glory of lilacs to a pinhole, I pluck color from images to paste in my memory" pierces through my heart. Powerful!
ReplyDeletehat final bit is both utterly apt and completely chilling. I wonder sometimes what I would do if I ever lost my sight; I think it would be terrifying.
ReplyDeleteI can relate. Last summer I had two torn retinas. It was rough not being able to read, write, use the computer for a couple of months. I hired the teenager boy a few houses down from me to enter my words into the computer. Luckily he was an excellent speller and grammarian.
ReplyDeleteI have often thought of how closed in a life would seem to be without sight. I am glad that your scare turned out to be all is well Susie. I especially love the line, "Losing the glory of lilacs to a pinhole"...that is just how it would be.
ReplyDeleteThank you Susie. The sensation of sudden blindness must be scary. I practice finding things in the dark. Like remembering where I put them and memorizing their shapes. All the men and some of my aunts have gone blind from Macular Degeneration starting around my age.
ReplyDelete..
Losing the glory of lilacs
ReplyDeleteto a pinhole, I pluck color
from images to paste
in my memory............perfectly expressed...great!
Especially struck by:
ReplyDeleteI pluck color
from images to paste
in my memory.
the idea of a pinhole - wow - that totally blew me away - I've made and used pinhole cameras - which is one hell of a different way of looking/photographing and seeing/not seeing the world .... so this whole piece, really resonated with me .... even as it applies to something so personal, as a sudden problem with one's vision - and it literally, thankfully, ended well for you -
ReplyDeletebut the undue stress, the anxiety - all so well worded and phrased here - and as Kerry noted:
your ability to take and idea and then tell a story, poetically, while layering so many meanings, is just really brilliant - and satisfying - I so enjoy reading your poems, here on Black Ink or on your other site.