Transformations

Linda Zeigler: Full Circle

Fri, 10/20/2017 - 4:15am

     This poem was written during one of my recent Writing from the Deep Voice workshops. It was created in response to the Absence of Field exercise, which was invented by Jack Grapes to help the writer create language where there is no field; field as defined in quantum physics. So words are quarks and electrons; phrases, the atoms. The task in this exercise is to break up the field. Imagine two magnets that repel rather than attract. In the following work, the poet has broken up the field with the use of language and also the arrangement of words. We spent the entire semester putting words in pleasing order, in rational and emotional order and now with Absence of Field, we blow it apart. 

                                     — Kathrin Seitz 

       

    Full Circle

    Clouds in tea cups

        Melting like midnight

             Into a starless sky

                   Been there—done that

                       Strange painter of a melting, slinky world

                            Who can navigate

                                  The eye of that needle?

     

    Be lost and found at the same time

           Like a pair of someone else’s mittens

                 A whittled old man

                      Drifting into a fog bank

                            Emerging into the sunlight

                                   At the sound of a bugle

                                         The flap of a flag.

     

    Nowhere and everywhere

           Starting from scratch

                  With a long list of ingredients

                          Buzzards circle high above

                                 Riding the updrafts

                                        Clouds are mirrored in the still water below

                                                   The sky is indeed fallen

                   

    And the sly wind whispers

                         No more—enough

                                      No more—enough

     

    Burned at the stake

         La Sage Femme, she was burned alive.

                We all watched as the witch struck the match

                       She lit the pyre, set it ablaze

                             Pointing her boney finger at the crowd

                                    Screaming insane epithets

                                           Dancing on insecure feet, stomping a steady earth.

     

    Yellow dust rising like Sulphur

                     Filling our nostrils

                                 the stink of burning flesh

                                               We are all witnessing a butchery

                                                             The Scylla or the Whirlpool?

                                                                               Six dead or the entire ship lost?

                                                                                       Choose carefully Traveler.

     

    The path is never clear

            The journey never easy

                  Redemption is a bitter pill

                        You are being moved by a chain of stars

                               More purpose awaits

                                    Flowing with your New Moon energy

                                               Being called into existence by and old friend.

     

     Linda Zeigler moved to Camden with her husband and two children 35 years ago. She began her working life as a registered nurse and enjoyed a long career in women's health. She's been a reader and writer since she was seven years old. Poetry and storytelling are a lifelong passion.


     

    Transformations
    We tell stories.
    We tell stories to make sense of our lives.
    We tell stories to communicate our experience of being alive.
    We tell stories in our own distinct voice. Our own unique rhythm and tonality.

     

    Transformations is a story-telling column. The stories are written by community members who are my students. Our stories are about family, love, loss and good times. We hope to make you laugh and cry. Maybe we will convince you to tell your stories.
    — Kathrin Seitz, editor, and Cheryl Durbas, co-editor

    "Everyone, when they get quiet, when they become desperately honest with themselves, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there." — Henry Miller

    Kathrin Seitz teaches Method Writing in Rockport, New York City and Florida. She can be reached at kathrin@kathrinseitz.com. Cheryl Durbas is a freelance personal assistant in the Midcoast area. She can be reached at cheryldurbas@tidewater.net.