Poetics, Ponge, Sheets,
Brain In Bed
Mark Kerstetter at dVerse Poets Pub has given a prompt based on the wonderful French poet Ponge today and his poetization of objects. (I urge you to check out the article.) My brain is a bit fried tonight, which may be what led me to write the poem below.
Sheets
They are wide and flat and blank with the wide
flat blankness of sound sleep,
white noise, the sky
on those heavy days when summer’s head
can barely be lifted, those other days
when winter’s head
is weighted down with snow.
Except when they are not blank (or wide or flat) but
rumpled by the chased dream that moans for surrender,
ruffled by the soar of inner flight,
tangled around the angled limbs of those who are thrust
by their unconscious into a straitjacketed thrash, knotted
and wracked by those who weep, covering their faces.
Hold me tonight, sheets, like an envelope that is
mailed to tomorrow, and let me stretch
out in your cool crannies, those slices
of stillness, where, encompassed nightly
by the repeatedly touched and
untouched, I find place
for every square of my being, even
the enfisted heart.
P.S. for those who have been following this blog–I finished the novel manuscript, at least enough to submit to a silly (unwinnable by me) novel contest. Still, a lot of revising to be done, but it has a very good story and does hang together more or less. It is not, however, nearly so finished as NOSE DIVE! (Check it out!)
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Tags: Bed/sheets poem, manicddaily, object poem, picture of brain in bed, poem about sheets, Ponge
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ManicDDaily 
February 5, 2012 at 12:10 am
Love this, Karin. “Hold me tonight, sheets, like an envelope that is
mailed to tomorrow…” just exquisite and vivid, not only that particular line which I’m esp partial too, but the whole thing. One of my favorites of yours instantly. (btw–is that a brain tucked between the sheets with its head(?) resting on the pillows, or are my eyes just freaking out?)
February 5, 2012 at 12:24 am
yes, that’s supposed to be a brain. It is an old drawing but I recycled for this as seemed to fit.
February 5, 2012 at 2:03 am
rumpled by the chased dream that moans for surrender….and the straightjacket line…yep that is me tonight…cant sleep….wishing on that last stanza…which is def my fav…the envelope mailed to tomorrow…hot….
February 5, 2012 at 4:32 am
My choice would have been the same as Hedgewitch’s, so I’ll not repeat it. A fine response to the prompt, with absolutely no sign anywhere of fried neurons.
February 5, 2012 at 7:33 am
on those heavy days when summer’s head
can barely be lifted, those other days
when winter’s head
is weighted down with snow.
I could really identify with these words especially in the winter time 🙂 Thanks for sharing 🙂
February 5, 2012 at 9:20 am
You have some amazing lines and insights here. I love the way you intertwine passion with anxiety and a bit of tirednesd. The feeling of being enveloped in a world of surrender and dream, which children know so well with their forts, brings lovely memories of grandmother’s crisp white sheets, come to dialog and converse with yours.
February 5, 2012 at 10:31 am
Cool how it reads equally well for sheets of paper as for bedsheets!
February 5, 2012 at 11:15 am
Yes, thanks. I did think of that at one point, but I confess to having then forgotten about it!
February 5, 2012 at 11:24 am
“rumpled by the chased dream that moans for surrender,
ruffled by the soar of inner flight” love this. And the rest. great work.
February 5, 2012 at 12:36 pm
I like this, read the last stanza aloud because it felt right to be doing so… and it was like easing into comfortable sheets. Nice writing!
February 5, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Thanks so much! Thanks to everyone for their kind comments. I was very pleased as I had spent day revising something else, and happy to do something fresh–like sliding in to fresh sheets. K.
February 5, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Lots of great phrases and images here – the entire second stanza is wonderful, love the “envelope” and of course the phrase “every square of my being.” Fine work for a fried brain!
February 5, 2012 at 2:52 pm
You are so good!!! Definitely on my favorites list. 🙂 What you did with the sheets, particularly the repetition, twisted ME up.
That picture rocks. And these are my favorite parts of the poem:
“They are wide and flat and blank with the wide
flat blankness of sound sleep,
white noise”
“Except when they are not blank (or wide or flat)”
“tangled around the angled limbs of those who are thrust
by their unconscious into a straitjacketed thrash”
“Hold me tonight, sheets, like an envelope that is
mailed to tomorrow”
“I find place
for every square of my being”
February 5, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Ha, thanks so much, Shawna.
February 5, 2012 at 3:09 pm
PS – I like the picture. I think – I can’t remember exactly–but did the drawing by hand, painted in with iPhone. There are tons of wonderful painting apps on the iPhone and iPad, but my favorite is “Brushes.” (I have iPad now which is much better than iPhone for painting.)
February 5, 2012 at 6:51 pm
Congrats on finishing the manuscript!
February 5, 2012 at 7:27 pm
Thanks! It is tremendously rough! But it is much better than it was. Thanks for your support! Hope all is well. K.
February 5, 2012 at 10:25 pm
Congratulations on finishing the book. Quite an achievement!!
I really liked all the lines in this. I took a series of photos once of rumpled sheets to see what patterns might emerge and if it would look like abstract paintings. They just looked like rumpled sheets. This however, is far more. I agree with Joy about the fav. lines. Well done!