Open Letter To A Sun
You were so willing
to shine like hell
to use me up like gravity
to be the sun
that pulled my face to follow it
twisting, beaming while parching
then gone into darkness.
I learned
the bitterness of baked sunflowers
in a land of drought.
Now I'm hardpan clay--
but still
I miss the dance.
~February 2013
55 drooping petals for the g-man
and
for Kerry's Wednesday Challenge at real toads
an Open Letter of sorts
Found this clip of an old album which has some ...interesting music and poetry reading, including Swinbourne and a poem of William Blake's called Ah Sunflower, which starts at 2:01--caveat, this is not for everybody and contains adult material, as well as a lot of off-key notes,so if you go straight to 2:01, you'll miss everything but the silly version of the poem(though I like the songs before and after a lot, personally:
Hover mouse for attribution on top photo, or click to go to the photographer's page at flick'r Creative Commons.
Bottom image: Still Life with Four Sunflowers, Vincent Van Gogh, 1887
Public domain via wikipaintings.org
argh, don't let nobody use you up.
ReplyDeletewhat an amazing photo too, wow.
there is beauty in the dried sunflower...its life freed...bkm
ReplyDeleteGod I miss it too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I feel like dancing!
Not the Charlston, Not the Frug, Maybe The Monkey...:P
But that warm Golden Flow that gives you Life.
(Not THAT Golden Flow either)
Loved your Ultra-Violet 55 Joy.
I'm not calling you Moonbat today..
You are The Sun Goddess.
Thank you for this beautiful little ditty, and have a Kick Ass Week-End
I love sunflowers and sunshine. I enjoyed the deeper metaphor in your poem. I'm interpreting it as if you're describing a "relationship" gone bad. Too much of a good thing can be harmful. Moderation is the key. Thought provoking poem, conjuring up all kinds of emotions and ideas for me. The relationship between the sunflower and the sun intrigues me, and how it can parallel a human relationship. Wonderfully written :)
ReplyDelete"Ah Sun-flowe! weary of time!" (I don't think Blake has that second exclamation point.) Such a pretty poem. I, getting older, can't help but think of the skin on that face! (Leather only one step on the way to hardpanned clay.) I love the idea of hardpanned by the way as it brings up baked again, and even clay (brings up flesh, etc).
ReplyDeleteAnd shine like hell - but thinking a lot about this using up like gravity. Such an interesting phrase - gravity a big force on sunflowers --pulling the heads over - a cool turn of phrase here as I personally don't think gravity can be used up, but it can certainly use things up, so you've got kind of a fun reversal. (I feel very used up by gravity at least, have to focus on the dance.) (Sorry to be incoherent--a crazy couple of days. Good stuff, but terribly pressed.) k.
Thanks, k. I also feel pretty used up by gravity, and that was what I was going for--the inexorable force which in the sun's case, pulls all kinds of debris into it to burn up---feel a lot like debris these days too! ;_) I ought to see if I can find that old song by the Village Fugs, where they put the Blake poem to music like a gregorian chant. Hope your move is soon fully congealed and you can stop seething in the cauldron of displacement(though it may be a cold rather than hot bath.)
DeleteI read so much more into this...
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm 53 and have lots of pre-cancerous lesions, I rue the day I trusted the sun, using protection little-to-none. Reading this, I'm grateful that lasers and blades take care of the effects. I don't have to rely on AZT or cocktails.
I don't think this emotion could have been put into words any better than this. First, I love that it's to "a" sun, not "the" sun. The sunflower can only be what it is, and follow, but that's true for the sun, perhaps, as well. How dull and colorless without each other. How blazing and alive the connection, and then how bleak and used-up after the parting. Who wouldn't miss that middle?
ReplyDeletePure poetry!! Love the close, of course...missing that dance even if it was a hard one. I adore that you gave the sunflower voice, Hedge!! :)
ReplyDeletesmiles....sun flowers are cool...i like how you used them, now burned up int eh drought as its an image that def sticks...the using up of gravity is interesting...was pondering gravity in something i wrote today....yet still want to dance...then do...dance...dance....it lightens the day...smiles...
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly how I feel these days, like hardpan clay, but still missing the dance. Fantastic write!
ReplyDeleteOK. I'm so lovin' this song. I can't understand all the words and that is typical. I would listen to music and just bee bop around and my dad's face would be turning red!
ReplyDeleteThe poem is amazing. Yes, some young men left me parched too... thank God I bounced back :)
"to use me up like gravity"
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous line!
Oh, this was good. It seems we're invariably attracted (at least once in our lives) to a sun that is hard and unfeeling and leaves us just as you say, hedgewitch.
ReplyDeleteI love this.
ReplyDeleteAh...what's left to say? Love it.
ReplyDeleteYes what can I say but it is amazing as always..."still I miss the dance" There is a bit of that in me...
ReplyDeleteExcellent metaphor in this. We all need to dance.
ReplyDeleteClever this, but the cleverness does not spoil the poetry. Great work.
ReplyDeleteIt didn't get picked! or put in a vase ? clumped in with other beauties- sad, sad tale...
ReplyDeleteAh, there's the rub in the final line. Even an excruciating sun has something in it that we miss when its gone for good (or at least a season).
ReplyDeleteSomething tells me you are still dancing the dance! LOVED the music ... especially 'How Sweet I Roamed From Field to Field' which felt delightfully bluegrass!
ReplyDeleteYou've captured the bleakness and sorrow perfectly.
ReplyDeleteI miss the dance too. This is heartbreakingly good Joy.
ReplyDeleteThose days in the sun were so powerfully beautiful, so beautifully powerful that we need only remember to feel a bit of them. Your poem helped me to remember the sun and the dance.
ReplyDeleteIronically, I had recently bookmarked this particular imagekind page because it spoke to me, and I think it will speak to you, too.
Interesting link, Lydia. I have to say, boiling up a gorgeous bloom like that makes the gardener in me wince, but I do like the spell-like quality of the combination. Thanks for reading.
DeleteHard pan is my new favorite word! Perfect!
ReplyDeletethe sun. I spent half of my life underestimating her. I like the idea/stage of hardpan clay before turning to dust, as it will. I am thinking now of warmer grounds and brighter colors, the shine is steady and the sunflowers will return--unless the squirrels have moved them again!
ReplyDelete