IMAGE OF EARTH AND QUILL

Guest Poet Timothy Kaiser



An Echo of Life

Water wells up from the stony cold earth
Pressed from the layers of implacable rock

A mountain spring is born, cool and pure
It flows freely over the stone, cutting deep to the heart of the mountain.
Cascading down the fast face of the cliff

Water brings renewal, water brings life
Water brings an end to pain and to strife.
But water does wound, as it flows carelessly
Irrevocably scarring the mountain that brings it being.

A rock feels no pain, mountains shed no tears.
Irony is a mountain,
cutting itself to peices.


April, 1998


Timothy Kaiser's Questions:

The message I hope to convey is that of someone being crushed under the wieght of the problems they have taken on themselves.  The tears caused by the pain are the water I speak of.

My question is Is my message clear enough, or have I buried it in too much metaphor?  Does my poem make sense to someone reading without foreknowledge of my intended message?

Thank you.


Correspond with Timothy Kaiser at
valhad@hotmail.com
with your ideas about this poem.



The Albany Poetry Workshop