Pages

Saturday 26 November 2011

Wilderness

The tide turns:
this wilderness is my domain,
transcending images
to ascertain
a single truth
amidst the lies;

there are no lies,
only whens and whys;

We don't belong
this family of I's,
We live to die
in peace and strife,
Our tragic lives
are alibis.

We fear to seek
the deeper still,
in case we fall
and falling fail,
to fulfil the telling
of our tale.

© Shaista Tayabali, 2011
for dverse poetry prompt 'wild';
Matisse, 1916, The Piano Lesson (Time intersects in this composition; in the open living-room window of Matisse’s house at Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris, his son Pierre practices the piano. A candle sits on the instrument, illuminating a triangle of lawn. In the bottom left corner is a representation of one of Matisse’s sculptures, Decorative Figure (1908), while the severe “teacher” in the opposite corner is actually a representation of the painting Woman on a High Stool (1914). Precise geometry and elusive illusion!)

13 comments:

  1. dang fine word play through out...love the dance in your words and some of the contradictions as well, but that is life...our tragic lives are alibis....that is an awesome line among a few others...

    ReplyDelete
  2. workmanlike effort!




    Aloha from Waikiki

    Comfort Spiral

    > < } } ( ° >

    ><}}(°>

    < ° ) } } > <

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hmmm.... this is tragically, achingly beautifully contradictory. I love how your words shift and echo, which to me, leads me deeper than the words to the ebb and flow of the sadness beyond it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your last stanza is just incredible!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "we don't belong..this family of I's"
    I absolutely love that line :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. great flow to this...and great thoughts..the lives are alibis..so tragic but sometimes so true as we're afraid to really live them..and in the end there's not much left

    ReplyDelete
  7. ...our lives are a little like the wilderness... nice twist to the theme

    ReplyDelete
  8. Captivating.
    Our tragic lives are alibis - That went home.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A wonderfully deep poem, Shaista. Happy Sunday across the pond!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes our lives are alibis. I love the depth of this. Thank you (and thank you for explaining Matisse's painting; I'd have missed most of that).

    ReplyDelete
  11. I need to go back and read this when I am not in a rush to finish packing and head to India. It is an incredible work and deserves my undivided attention. You are so gifted, Shaista.

    Hope you are doing well.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi - I've missed your beautiful words. Hope you're happy and healthy x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Your words are always so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete