Sunday, February 25, 2018

A Beggar's Glimpse


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

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.


12 comments:

  1. 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.

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  2. 'time walk of blindness' - a sobering, inspired line ~

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  3. Susie, 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.

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  4. Nice write
    " I pluck color
    from images to paste
    in my memory."


    Yes we need remember in our development progression.



    much love...

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  5. 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!

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  6. hat 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.

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  7. I 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.

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  8. I 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.

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  9. Thank 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.
    ..

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  10. Losing the glory of lilacs
    to a pinhole, I pluck color
    from images to paste
    in my memory............perfectly expressed...great!

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  11. Especially struck by:
    I pluck color
    from images to paste
    in my memory.

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  12. 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 -
    but 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.

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