Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Intimacy



If I let fall
My most precious tear
Into the warmth of your hand
I might baptize the stroke
Of my executioner
But how sweet
Would be the salvation
Reflected in the blade

20 comments:

Amritorupa Kanjilal said...

i read this poem thrice before i had soaked in the feeling completely...
But how sweet
Would be the salvation
Reflected in the blade
that was so lovely :) it reflected the helpless surrender that is love :)
i don't know. it stirred me very deep inside somewhere.
thank you jason :)

Anonymous said...

A very lovely poem offering as well as another stunning flower photo.

Karen said...

This is an interesting marriage of salvation and damnation; at the same time, the entire poem has a gentle feel to it. The speaker is vulnerable but willing to surrender.

This has a simple beauty, both of form and message.

The photograph is breathtaking.

the walking man said...

I'll have to agree with the chicks (ha ha ha ha).

The image of one who loves, prostrate with their emotion on the block, giving that one precious thing to the one loved and being saved in delivering the tear regardless whether the love is returned or denied. Yes this is love.

You almost make me wish I had a romantic side to me Jason...almost.

Aniket Thakkar said...

This is truly one of the best pieces of yours that I've ever read.

So much has been said in so less words.

Absolutely beautiful...

I can't pic any word/line or even appreciate the pic... coz I am awed by you supremacy and prowess.

Catherine Vibert said...

Images of fight, kiss and make up. But so eloquently and romantically said! Love the flower! What is that flower?

Sarah Hina said...

This is truly one of the most powerful and potent expressions of trust and vulnerability I've seen.

And yet...the words, If, might, and would be are little snags in the smoothness of that surrender. Like it hasn't quite happened yet, but is as near as that bright and shadowed flower.

Of course, I'd like to deny a blade at all, but I won't be quite that naive. Beautiful work, Jason.

Margaret said...

Amazing Jason!

How you put so much into a few lines.

Intimacy is something to be read with a quiet, soft voice. It reflects surrender to the power of love. How one would give up his/her life for a moment of ecstasy.

Brilliant!! Hope I can learn from you Jason.

Jennifer said...

This is absolutely my favorite poem of yours (which is saying a lot.) How many people take that risk--that they might baptize that stroke--and how few get the reward.

Hoodie said...

I had a cool experience with this.

I read over the words with kind of a glossed-over minds and then suddenly the meaning coalesced and it was like a cloud concentrated into a pinpoint leaving me awestruck.

This is beautiful, Jason. Simultaneously strong and vulnerable.

Linda S. Socha said...

Jason
Powerful, graceful, vulnerable, extremely well done. I am in awe in the execution on this one
Linda

raine said...

Powerful and wistful, so much in a few words.
Lovely, Jason. Lovely.

Anonymous said...

Little Girl Lost, thank you for opening up to this poem and embracing its spirit. :)

Aggie, I especially like the fall of late afternoon sun on the blooms.

Karen, thank you. :) The poem is a hard surrender. To offer yourself up when the danger feels so real.

Walking Man, I can see the romance in there. It may be deeply stung, but it's there.

Aniket, you definitely gave me a smile. :) Thank you for the highest praise!

Catvibe, the flowers are forsythia blooms. I caught this grouping in the late afternoon sun and took several shots at different apertures to balance the depth of field in the flowers against the right amount of blur in the background.

Sarah, knowing some of the depth of your experience, praise like that is high indeed. :) And you've captured what is, for me, the central conflict of the poem. Although there is much understanding there, the word on which the whole piece hangs is if.

Margaret, thank you. :) I think the greatest gift of the internet and blogging is the opportunity for all of us to learn from each other.

Jennifer, thank you for saying so! And yes, I understand the depth and magnitude of such a surrender. This poem stands close, but still outside of it.

Hoodie, thanks for sharing that experience with me! It's a rush to hear that these words evoked such a defined experience.

Linda, thanks. :) I liked the metaphor here. I think I captured the essence well.

Raine, great to see you! Thank you for the kind words. I do very much try to make every word count.

SzélsőFa said...

I had to reread a couple of times and also I had to consult the comments above mine to get it - I must be tired :(

*heads off to do some more re-reading*

- kind of disturbing and thought-provoking.
Really well done.

Catherine Vibert said...

Wow, I"m totally amazed that is forsythia, because I'm used to looking at it with human eyes and not with HUGE camera eyes, such as your camera has captured.

On second and third reads of your poem, I really am in love with it. It is a strange universe, the inside of us, and one that is hard to talk about at times...sometimes metaphor is the only way to really capture the gist of our vulnerable inner boundaries and landscapes. This is so tender, and yet evocative of those oh so unpleasant ways of communicating that cause us to cut and gauge each other, why? Because why, because we are protecting ourselves? Protecting a boundary? A tender embryo that needs space to grow? So we hurt the ones we love to nourish that tiny seed that doesn't even know it is alive yet? I'm waxing philosophical, and am applying your words to myself, which is the best kind of poetry Jason, one that invokes self introspection...thanks for this.

Catherine Vibert said...

Oh, by the way, the crocus painting on my blog was inspired by your gorgeous photographs a couple of weeks ago.

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

I see it almost as a pleading - if I forgive you for what wrongs you do me, would you be accepting of the absolution - or would it not matter to you one bit? How can one accept forgiveness, if no guilt is admitted? It is a thought provoking poem, well crafted.

Anonymous said...

Szelsofa, sorry it fought you. No worries. :)

Catvibe, yeah, this framing really does give it a whole different effect. And thanks for all of the additional thoughts on the poem!! You really have dug down to the core of what I was airing and exploring. I think you know these waters. (And I'm very honored to have inspired a painting!)

Kaye, I love seeing the different interpretations! Poems take on such life that way. :)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful, you. Just beautiful.

Anonymous said...

SarahA, :) Thank you!