i need deadlines
so i don’t spend unpaid hours staring out at the blue sky, thinking that billowy cloud looks a little like a plump sheep and that one is a typewriter, waste all my unmeasured minutes gathering the wisps of water vapor and spinning them out in my mind
the deadline is a hard stop
before which i force my tangled thoughts to straighten
and very diligently set the words down line by line,
each pass builds the structure predictably higher.
at the end who knows what i’ll have – a scarf or a sock, something i can use or sell – but
maybe this time it will be unrecognizable, the shape of clustered starfish with fat fist-sized loops, dangling chewstrings, a gift for a baby girl loved unreasonably for eighty years right till the final unraveling
Hilary Kemp is an ex-patriate Canadian who fell in love with long division in fourth grade, survived an adolescent romance with Keats and TS Eliott and currently teaches both biology and salsa dancing to anyone who will listen (see www.claverhythmz.com and www.geocities.com/sciencetranslater). A postdoctoral fellow studying vertebrate brain development at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, Hilary is looking for an academic teaching position but secretly dreams of hosting her own public radio show.
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14 Responses to “WOOL GATHERING • by Hilary Kemp”
Comments
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June 25th, 2009 at 1:24 am
Some fantastic imagery and writers’ philosophy in this one, but more prose than poetry, I thought.
June 25th, 2009 at 6:08 am
I like the poem very much for excellent flow of objects,
notions,stories behind them. It’s amazing to represent life as
H.Kemp sees hers and think about special design of individual
life which when completed should bring a reward to a person,
but she never knows what she and other people will see in the
end.
June 25th, 2009 at 6:08 am
I love the metaphor, the title, the thoughts (so true!) expressed in this, Hilary! But, I have to agree with Paul, too. The format is a bit heavy & unwieldy and the syntax seems excessively wordy. It feels (to me) like a draft of a potentially beautiful poem — in need of a serious “trimming”.
But that metaphor — lovely!
June 25th, 2009 at 7:18 am
Neat metaphor. I love your bio. I think I have that same secret wish…shh.
June 25th, 2009 at 7:22 am
This does a nice job of moving the way random thoughts do…sometimes they’re succinct, sometimes they’re uncontrolled…
June 25th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Excellent concept for a poem. Interesting that it’s put into a state resembling the early part of a poem’s construction, including a phrase here and there to excise. Of course everyone’s mind follows a different pattern, but the poet seems to have spent many unmeasured minutes staring at threads to spin, with or without a deadline. I would like to read more from this writer.
As so often happens, since its a fictional concept, is rounded out and complete, and since it’s not a story, then ergo: it’s a poem. Or anyway, it’s the poetry section and should be read. Good luck Hilary on your measured-minute radio show, but please find time for writing.
June 25th, 2009 at 8:36 am
I don’t manage near as much when I’m gathering wool.
–dj
June 25th, 2009 at 10:32 am
dj – If you don’t gather wool, how will you weave or knit?
June 25th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Isn’t there something between poetry and prose that’s not that dreadful category “prose poetry” (which is usually neither)? I think of it as Word Collage, and this would fit in nicely. Very artful.
June 25th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Exquisite and powerful. Thanks.
June 26th, 2009 at 5:22 am
Sharon – “Word Collage” might be a good idea for a name for some kinds of writing, but the words in this piece added up to constructed sentences. I thought of another word for some short pieces some months back, “snippet”, neither a story, nor the tight rhythms of poetry, very often descriptive of place or a single emotion or a single conversation.
June 30th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Beautiful! it stays with me.
June 30th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
I so enjoyed this! I watched you build a structure row by row from a few spun thoughts & saw how it could be anything at all. Revel.Unraveling.Reveal. No minutes were measured while reading this over & over. I look forward to much more from Hilary Kemp!
July 1st, 2009 at 8:44 am
Poetry has never been one of my strong suits so can’t say if your first run is a killer or not. But I enjoyed it and look forward to seeing more of your work.