I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

6 February 2018

Unanswered Messages

Oh, what mystery there is in silence! The mind rushes in to fill the void with imaginings. You are no longer the dear you I think I knew before; you become an amorphous, shifting proliferation of possibilities. The human mind is hard-wired to attach meanings to all phenomena. So the absence of communication doesn't stay simply that; I make it mean this about me and that about you, many thises and thats. I make it mean that someone is wrong, someone is to be blamed. I did something wrong, therefore you don't communicate. Or your non-communication is you doing something wrong. Or maybe neither: perhaps circumstances are to blame. Perhaps your computer is broken, or lost, or stolen. Perhaps you are busy, or tired, or sick, or dead. Something is to blame, something is wrong. It cannot just be: a thing in itself. Nature doesn't abhor a vacuum nearly as much as that part of nature called the human mind does.

the air turns cold
after the sound of rain
ceases


I came across this journal entry from some time ago – the prose piece – and thought it just needed a verse added to become a haibun.

Linking to The Tuesday Platform for Feb 6 2018 at "imaginary garden with real toads".  I am shifting my (future) poetry to a new blog, which I did not anticipate when I posted this one. It seems kinda appropriate / ironic that the last one here is about unanswered messages, which might even be unread – so, by linking, I am making sure it is read!


16 comments:

  1. Very wise words.....and i LOVE the haiku.

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  2. I like this reasoning for unanswered messages. The haiku is wonderful.

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  3. Humanity is always too quick to put words into the actions of Nature's mouth.

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  4. Love it.. the haiku is brilliant..

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  5. If Saul Bellow was right when he said writers are readers moved to emulation, then this missed note became the armada of poems in bottles to come. And all we know whittles so.

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  6. you have taken silence and filled it with questionings and wonderings - the haiku brings the silence that comes after rain - a lovely find

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  7. Oh gosh how I relate to this!💖 We do tend to jump to conclusions when that someone doesn't answer our messages. Love how you weave those thoughts into this poem. Beautifully rendered!💖

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  8. Nice reasoning, Rosemary. "The mind rushes in to fill the void with ..." We could relate the mind here with the part of spell checkers that do 'auto correct and complete.'
    ..

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  9. The human mind can so often lead us wrong... I have also wondered how you can draw a bear from a couple of stars... we do have this tendency to fill the void... sometimes we should just let silence be I think

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  10. There is a term they use now for unanswered messages, ghosting. I really hate it when silence forms and you don't know why.

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  11. Oh! I really get this. Your teensy haiku is splendid.

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  12. love how the haiku morphs -- can be just about rains but then after reading the haibun, it becomes layered, speaking about friendship's communication (or the lack thereof) and it's effect. Very cool.

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  13. I love the way different levels of meaning seem to orbit around each other in the relationship between the haiku and prose... very beautiful and relatable.

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  14. Oh, the interior life of the self...interesting take.

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