Author Information
Rehearsal for Something Better
The fireflies,
little exhales of gold,
have returned
after a
long absence,
and now
they are precious.
They might as well be
glimpses of
every lost summer—
a reconfigured landscape
of memory filled with
moon spray and
light speak
and other
accidental miracles,
or
tiny leaks in the
mortal world
where the infinite
drips through,
perhaps poems
in a higher language
or
a practice run for much
better things,
right here beside
the lawn chairs
and the zealous
honeysuckle vine
that didn't know
when to quit.
Each blink
is another moment,
each moment,
another Absolute Now.
What if . . .
just one,
immortalized by faith,
could change
everything
and we'd finally
know that we
are marvels
just for being
and this story is
so much better
because we
are in it?
Fire away,
prodigal messengers
of No-time and
All-time,
living for the
purpose of
a little drama
in the blindness,
to be some
surrogate stars when
the sky has slammed shut,
a few signposts that say:
Look . . .
This is the way back
to the place
of beginnings.
Patricia Joan Jones
I do so like it here, it's
I do so like it here, it's always inspiring, and beautifully presented. Thank you Patricia, for sharing your gift.
Thank you so much for
Thank you so much for stopping by and lifting me higher with your support. I value your opinion, brilliant Poet.
I was about to turn in for
I was about to turn in for the night, but then this poem appeared, and I cannot close the day without immediately commenting on this wonderful entry added to the grandeur of the poems Patricia has already posted here.
First, look at the first metaphor presented, in the second line. "Little exhales of light": that is verbal artistry that should make every poet on this site envious. The centerpiece of the poem is in the stanza that begins "and we'd finally/know." She closes the poem with another two magnificent metaphors---the surrogate stars and the signposts.
Reading this poem, I realized something I have never thought of before: when we look at the night sky, the stars we see are tiny points of twinkling light. We do not see the massive, incandescent sphere in which the pressure of gravity and the pressure of fusion, although opposites, are kept in perfect equilibrium. We see what we were intended to see---those small points of light. And we see the same correspondence in summer and early autumn with the fireflies. This correspondence was embedded in the creation of the Cosmos and the creation of Earth by the God Who is Love, and a the verbal skill and spiritual acumen of this magnificent Poet, Patricia, reminds us of this fact. One of the functions of Poetry is to point out things that, in the ordinary course of daily living, we may not notice, or retain, or correctly interpret. To my mind, Vergil established this tradition with his attention to the way the Cosmos, or Nature, as settings, are impacted by and impact the lives of shepherds, farmers, and warrior; with the tacit reminder that the task of Poets is to present these aspects. Patricia writes from the Vergilian perspective. Just as Vergil did not need to imitate Homer's or Hesiod's length poems to achieve effectiveness, Patricia need not imitate Vergil's. Quality, rather than quantity, informs and vivifies the Vergilian perspective, and Patricia achieves that . . . each and every time.
Starward
I was thrilled that you gazed
I was thrilled that you gazed so deep into my intentions here and illuminated them with ravishing finesse. What a gift for literary analysis you have that is only surpassed by your own poetic skill!
And for the highly valued encouragement, a thousand times: thank you!
I am always glad to see
I am always glad to see multiple comments on your poems. It reminds me of how the JWT photographs a star multiple times, and then the images are merged for an enhancement of detail. Future scholars (and there will be, I am convinced of it, future scholars looking at your work) will read these comments on multiple aspects of your poems the way astronomers look at the JWT multiple images.
Starward
What a stirring and
What a stirring and reassuring analogy! My humble, heartfelt gratitude for all your support.