Tuesday 4 January 2011

What Is That Thing ?

WILLOW'S MAGPIE 47




Polished purple-black metal, 
shiny, smooth,
with rounded, hollowed out curves
meeting in a sturdy foot,
small, rounded protuberances
emanating.

A small object,
ornament,
missile,
sculpture,
implement,
weapon?

Its purpose lost,
like long-forgotten tools
on dusty shelves,
unloved, 
unwanted,
unused.

Except that now it is reborn, 
resurrected,
recognized for what it is:
a symbol for the new beginning,
the rounded curves of new life,
polished hollows and shiny studs

to thread and pin and follow
the winding road of a new year.




38 comments:

  1. Great take on this one! I too struggled initially trying to decipher it, and ended interpretting it as a life representation, time twisting on itself.

    Love the humor in your piece. The struggle to figure it out.

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  2. At first glance I thought it a pair of black framed specs ... then I put my own on and saw it was a representation of life etc. Symbolic of the New Year?

    I haven't visited blogville for a few days - got wrapped up in that other place so am now busy catching up with everyone. I enjoyed your post and previous few!

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  3. Great metaphor for life Friko. Not sure where it will take me, or what it is about, but a path with hollows and smooth and protruding places.

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  4. Still haven't a clue . Since I think with my stomach , I wondered if it was an attachment for a kitchen Or a bit of an ancient cine camera .
    It doesn't really matter . It's rather beautiful in its own right and your poem , as always , a pleasure to read .

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  5. ha...yeah i am not sure what it is but the winding road sounds good to me...never know where it might take you here in the new year...

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  6. You turned the very nature of this prompt - "What is it" INTO your poem. I love this idea. It will take me a while to think upon this one. You were quick out of the gate, but wonderfully successful!

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  7. a symbol for the new beginning

    What a great way to think of this sculpture...

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  8. friko - i laughed when i saw that title - my mind raced. then when i saw the image i laughed again because even though i know that tess kincaid is one sharp person, i really wondered if this was a baby henry moore sculpture gone loose or something even more obscure. your writing opens out the whole piece really cleverly - again!!! steven

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  9. Lovely Magpie, 'the rounded curves of new life' great line.

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  10. This is a good take - your description of it, the confusion in naming it and then seeing it as a symbol of the future.

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  11. Interesting..shows positive attitude towards life

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  12. To infinity and beyond! :)
    I loved your take on the prompt and the questions asked of it.
    Happy 2011

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  13. It's perfect, how this turned out..and all that you saw..amazing!

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  14. I like the idea of restoration and new life.

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  15. Well Friko, at first I wondered what it was but then decided to just wait til the feeling hit me. I saw my raven haired sister's hair in a beautiful chignon. LOL
    QMM

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  16. I like your use of symbolism and metaphor in describing both the sculpture and life. A great interpretation.

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  17. I like how you saw the object as reborn for the new year!

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  18. I like new beginnings. I like your thoughts on this. XX

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  19. I really like how you interpreted it. So many ways to go...

    Here is my magpie:
    a wheel barrow

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  20. It got me too, initially.You dissected it very well.

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  21. Who'd have thought so much could come from so little?

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  22. I love the way you described the feel of the sculpture in that first verse.... such a tactile description.

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  23. You saw the object and the words dance around it. A privilege to watch.

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  24. wonderful musing - just lovely. Well done!
    and if you have time come on over to my new 2011 Photo Project
    http://kathewsnapaday.blogspot.com

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  25. vivid capture of your imaginations and

    masterful delivery.

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  26. Re your note I have been editing some posts and when you do that it prevents people from seeing them unless you keep them published...perhaps that was the problem?

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  27. I love that you zeroed in on the
    piece as prompt, letting it, as
    all Art, photographs, paintings,
    sculpture, and the rest, be
    up for interpretation. This is
    one of your better poems.
    I love the lines:
    /sculpture, implement, weapon?/
    /polished hollows and shiny studs/
    You have pulled some of we
    concrete thinkers into the abstract,
    into the pregnant ozone of your
    creativity. Thanks.

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  28. Aloha from Hawaii, Dear Sister Friko.
    This wellmade little poem
    shows your skill and speaks to those of us
    who fancy that we have come to know (a little) and to love your heart. You invest the things of this world with the divinity of your imagination and warmth. I often think of some thing you've said, or human moral scene that you have deftly breathed to life in your post. . . part of me survived a war, came to a new land, and lives in rural England because of your generosity in being my friend.

    Comfort Spiral

    ><}}(°>


    <°)}}><

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  29. Excellent love the last stanza the threading of a new year...Happy One to you...bkm

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  30. Art is so personal to everyone. Beautiful take on this. Of course everything for me right now is about my mother.

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  31. You are clever – I would not be able to write a poem on such a little tool. I am not sure what it is, to me it looks like a roll-a-desk for a calendar, but the words are much more evocative.

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  32. So true. I wonder what that is as well. You have elevated it to the perfect symbol.

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  33. schöner und einfallsreicher kann man wohl kaum über dieses Symbol oder "Ding" schreiben - und deshalb wage ich auch nichts dergleichen...
    Einen schönen Neuen Tag für Dich, liebe Friko!
    Renée

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  34. oh, I love how you weaved the wonder here.

    I see a family, the parents on top and bottom, two children on the sides.

    it's the weaving of strength and support and reaching out ?

    which is kind of like blogging. like this community.

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  35. and ,
    what you said to me?

    thank you from the bottom of my heart. truly.

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  36. Aw, "symbol for a new beginning" - exactly!

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