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Water of Life

by lang-lad 

Posted: 05 September 2005
Word Count: 186


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Water of Life


So will it be like this,
lying still,
the bath gone cold, but I
disinclined to rise?

I pull the plug out, take the chain
between my toes, the water drains
by gravity,
the water runs away like apathy
no effort of its own
the water pools
world wide
and sans volition, reinvented, in due course, it falls
again
as rain.

Tropically driven, typhoon, wave or in suspension, mist;
condensed or frozen, falling to the land
to land again
and let itself with no compunction
find repose.

Are we like snow,
do we
re-incarnate like rain?
Does two percent of dry disqualify and if so
does the water, ninety eight percent of it, just flow
and cut us through indifferently as water floods a plain?

And will it be like this,
the bath gone cold and, disinclined again to rise, I'll pull the plug out,
take the chain between my toes.

The water drains
by gravity,
the water runs away by apathy
the water goes.

No effort of my own,
I'll let myself
with no compunction
cleaned of life of expectation
find repose?







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Comments by other Members



Ticonderoga at 17:11 on 05 September 2005  Report this post
This seems incredibly apropos of recent events in Louisiana. Obviously, what's being addressed is much more universal, but, like all poems which tackle big themes well, it certainly fits the moment. I'd be curious to know if this is a new poem or you felt drawn to it again by what's happening at the moment.
This is a very elegant, intelligent, involving poem.


Best,

Mike

lang-lad at 19:31 on 05 September 2005  Report this post
Hi, Mike,
It's just that in the bath this morning as the water drained away I realised something about water I'd not registered before - how indiscriminate and blameless in itself it is, propelled by something else, as if gravity and consciousness are one and the same thing somehow and we're failing to see the water's just obeying orders.
I'd be in way over my head if I tried to address what's happening in any specific way.
I've commented inexpertly on your poem which did, oddly enough, appear, on the face of it, but not actually related.
elixa


Ticonderoga at 12:28 on 06 September 2005  Report this post
'elixa', I like - a nice amalgam of you and elixir: somehow appropriate. Respect the humility of your response. 'Fraid I just blunder in at times like these and shoot from the heart, but your approach is probably wiser in the long run.

Mitakuye Oyasin,

Mike



lang-lad at 14:20 on 06 September 2005  Report this post
Mike,
I'll copy this to your poem too so I'll know you'll get it (in a way I'm responding to your poem through mine)
I'm not sure what I've written isn't two poems in one after reading it to a friend this morning over the phone. But all I'm doing right now is getting it down. Its edits will happen later.
Thanks for your generous appraisals.(by the way I read her yours too and she suggested beginning it with the ending. She liked its jagged energy she said.
eliza with a zee today



Ticonderoga at 14:41 on 06 September 2005  Report this post
Bugger! That's a really good idea, but I can't see my effusion as an artefact at the moment; it'll have to sit in solemn silience for a long time before I can think about crafting it.
God, I miss having a bath................(to lie in, that is - I do shower on a pretty regular basis!) Fegs, Meg!

Mike

lang-lad at 14:51 on 06 September 2005  Report this post
Mike - I don't know which poem you're on about now - I assume yours?
Anyway - glad if it is, it provided something for future mullings.

cheers cher ami
e

Ticonderoga at 14:59 on 06 September 2005  Report this post
Oh, my poem of course....me, me, me, me, me!

;-) m

laurafraser at 14:13 on 03 October 2005  Report this post
lang-lad,

i like the simple tone of this, it reads like a chain of very concise organised (when is that ever the reality...?!) toughts that one might have as they lie in the bath and ponder the essence of water.

The thoughts of this poem have remained in my head as I write this and I thank-you for that. I like the subtle philosophical tone of rhis poem, it is not arogant or elite or challenging.

There is a quiet beauty to the poem.

Really lovely

Laura.

lang-lad at 14:59 on 03 October 2005  Report this post
Thank-you, Laura,
I've just realised I had done a little more work on this poem and hadn't uploaded the rewrite - I've only changed the first little bit because a friend said she had an image of the bath itself rising instead of the bather. Thank-you therefore for drawing me back to it. And I'm very glad you have responded so positively to it.

eliza


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