Love Letter

Painting courtesy of Stellan K at Hopeless Poet blog.


Her ebony hair whittled
From a raven's feather
Cascades her shoulders, full quotation
Like evensong in November
Catching on a dilated sun
Until it falls in thin wisps around her fingertips.

The outline of the letter hides quartered fingertips
In open crags of white storm a solace whittled
Against the equinoctial sun
Those camber words carved with a second feather
Become an erased November
Slumbering in soldered quotation

Her love becomes a bruised quotation
Fielded to her flaccid fingertips
Where tears dry against a canvassed November.
She watches while her whittled
Sanctuary falls against the nevermore feather
Sanctioned by the pneumatic sun.

She allowed the inceptive sun
Time to refrain from guarded quotation
Of indigo sky and tree that feather
Surrounding mountains before she used casual fingertips
To place his forgotten and whittled
Name into parched November

Earth. She caressed the sleeping November
With her hand warm as forgiving sun
Until the subjacent field was whittled
Away from her sight. Then she buried in sandy quotation
His last love letter. Her creased fingertips
Like an obfuscated feather.

She woke to a raven's fallen feather
A keepsake from an edged November
That washed her lithe fingertips
With a glint of mourning sun.
She began her daily quotation,
Tears evicted and whittled.

Her heart his death whittled, empty, broken like tip of a feather
A requisite quotation before grains of earthen November
And ides sun sand through her fingertips.

1 comment:

Naquillity said...

Christine said...

I'm so impressed with the sestina challenge you took on. your vocabulary is so rich.

The picture you found - did it inspire the poem, or did you happen to find the picture after you wrote your sestina?

Anyway, it's complicated, lovely, and interesting.

Thursday, October 18, 2007
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Anonymous UL said...

I agree with Christine, such richness with words and the flow, I would love to hear this read, I will need a few reads more. Thanks for sharing.

Thursday, October 18, 2007
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Anonymous pia said...

Love "become an erased November..."

Thursday, October 18, 2007
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Blogger Rae Trigg said...

Such a stark picture of sorrow - a very clear portrayal of grief over lost love.

Thursday, October 18, 2007
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Blogger TC said...

To place his forgotten and whittled
Name into parched November

Earth.

Tough to do.

Thursday, October 18, 2007
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Blogger sandra said...

The words and the picture wrap around me. I'm not qualified to offer helpful criticism, but I can hear a rhythm in your words.

Friday, October 19, 2007
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Anonymous gautami tripathy said...

I have written only one sestina till date. I like the form.

Villanelles are killers but I love that form.

This is indeed a great sestina. I think we should write structured poetry more often. It disciplines the mind.

Friday, October 19, 2007
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Anonymous desert rat said...

"Her love becomes a bruised quotation"

Liked that line. Quite a challenge you took on. I like the words you chose to repeat, and the potential for different meanings you found in them.

Friday, October 19, 2007
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Blogger Bone said...

The sestina is a very interesting form. Great job!

Friday, October 19, 2007
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Blogger A Tag Along Traveler said...

ok so I have to admit my engineering brain required a dictionary for this one...;)

I love the way your words bring forth images of how her love for him has made her world so empty and cold, that remembering him is hard to do but there is some happiness in that remembering as well...

Saturday, October 20, 2007
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Blogger Truefaith1963 said...

Finally got here!
Brilliant sestina! I did one once (never again) - it's not easy is it? You do challenge yourself...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

July 4, 2008 at 11:24 AM