Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Give a Stone Another Name (Poem)

Give a Stone Another Name

Take up your quarried white stone
and give it, once more,

a new name. Don't speak
of its hardness, known only

to that other heart. Engrave
its fullest sound where you feel it

most: not in the empty hand, not
on the back twice broken. Feel it

where you lean into it, softening.
Let it call you, your own return to home.

© 2013 Maureen E. Doallas

13 comments:

Peggy Rosenthal said...

Oh, how beautiful and poignant, Maureen: heart-breaking but also heart-healing.

Deborah said...

Most intriguing and beautifully done. Bravo.

Brian Miller said...

engrave its fullest sound...what a cool line that is...and the contrasts in soft and hard...

Joseph Hesch said...

Lovely and touching, Maureen. Even the hardest heart can break.

Anonymous said...

I'm getting images of a sculptor at work here; the way (s)he works with the stone to release the statue inside, feels for the imperfections and their possibilities. Maybe it's just because one of the copies of "The Kiss" is on display in Edinburgh (my hometown), but that's what your beautiful poem made me think of.

Lorna Cahall said...

This is so fine. Rich and deep...

Jody Lee Collins said...

'lean forward' is on my mind this post-Boston Marathon week. I think of leaning towards 'home', wherever we find it. This has got me pondering. Thank you.

Scarlet said...

I like the ending lines the most ~

Anonymous said...

I picture the engraving of a tombstone, meant to sum up a person's life in so few words.

S. Etole said...

Reminds me of the white stone in Revelation with our new name.

Margaret said...

A bit intriguing thinking of it as a diamond... but the whole reads more like a grave stone or a statue...

Nice.

It almost seems hopeless but for the beautiful two ending lines!

Laura said...

How in the world do you do this? This could make me weep if I let it.

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

I love stones of all kinds, and love this poem.