Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Pictures of Patience (Poem)

Pictures of Patience


Fingers lace
a human bandage 
to hide the blues
and yellowed purples
committed to cover
biding the clock's
sweeping hands
the tapping gently
9 - 1 - 1


II

When you're hungry
listening
takes fearsome patience
a coyote's dirt-scraped crouch
the rotation of
owl-eyed gestures
the snap-to
of a rattler
seconds before striking


III

Patience
be luck's meter
the day after the day after  
depending on the cards
falling just so


IV

Numerals on a forearm
do not shift with time
the way memory
unhinges with a drag 
in the story's telling

The virtue is 
not in the suffering endured
but in the faith 
unrocked

Copyright © 2010 Maureen E. Doallas. All Rights Reserved.

This series is my contribution to today's Blog Carnival for which the one-word prompt is "patience". A bi-weekly event open to anyone, the Blog Carnival is sponsored by Bridget Chumbley of One Word at a Time and Peter Pollock of Rediscovering the Church. For a list of links to all of today's contributors to today's carnival, go here.

17 comments:

Glynn said...

Five examples, five pictures of patience, all wrapped up in one beautiful poem.

Lorrie said...

Oooops, I missed this one!! Very pleased to read your contribution though.. I like it VERY much :-)

Kelly Sauer said...

this is seriously beautiful. I love this collection...

Louise Gallagher said...

Powerful stuff!

The last to paras are stunning.

Thanks Maureen.

'faith unrocked'

WoW!

Louise

Anonymous said...

i can see the pictures

katdish said...

Sheesh! That's pretty wild how we sort of went in the same direction, because I thought surely I would be the only person to go there. Very powerful words, Maureen.

Bonnie Gray said...

Wow - that first stanza startled me!

"When you're hungry
listening
takes fearsome patience"

I can't even say how good this is, Maureen. Your words said it all.

sarah said...

Great! I so much enjoyed reading these.

Anonymous said...

Maureen - these are serious poetry. (Not sure if my grammar was correct just then...) But, really, these are incredibly potent. Short, terse verses punched with a wallop of meaning and imagery. Especially, this: "numerals do not shift with time the way memory unhinges with a drag." O M G
And I, too, am a really bad listener when I'm hungry.

Kathleen Overby said...

Aahh, Maureen. Trying to comment would be like turning on the radio after being to an opera. All I can do is clap my hands sore...

L.L. Barkat said...

"the snap-to
of a rattler"

Great sound. I feel it in my emotions too.

Anonymous said...

Maureen, that first one really struck me! These are all great examples... thank you.

S. Etole said...

I especially like the last one ...

Anne Lang Bundy said...

The virtue is
not in the suffering endured
but in the faith
unrocked

Beautifully poignant description of what patience should be!

Dianna Woolley said...

I may have to enter this "world" - your verses are habit forming. Each invites you to read on:)

Rich Dixon said...

The virtue is not in the suffering...but in the faith.

Wow.

human about said...
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