Mined
Mined
Crystallized clots of gritted ice
collated by plow,
queue like geodes on display
along the valley road.
Snow truly does
sparkle; another instance
of the heady availability
of beauty
that we humans have
at our hand’s eye–
and I wonder, as I wonder at
great stretches of iridescence,
whether it’s not the plant in us
that is so awed by diamonds–that part evolved
from what seeks water, thirsts
for sun,
and whether poets shouldn’t always describe jewels
as glistening like snow,
gems glimmering like
a river; some form of H2O wearing the diadem
rather than the reverse–
Some will disagree,
humans having developed a greed
beyond the most rapacious weed.
Still, this, I say (if only
to myself):
watch
when you turn on the tap;
catch
those flashes of splash;
hold a glass
to the sunlight;
drink deep.
******************************
Posted a little late for Real Toads Tuesday Open Platform, hosted by the wonderful Marian Kent. I wasn’t quite able to take the picture I wanted due to the cold!
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, UncategorizedTags: geodes by the roadside poem, http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com, like water like diamonds poem, manicddaily, the heady availability of beauty poem, what is a geode
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
ManicDDaily 
March 3, 2015 at 10:31 pm
water is far more the commodity…and hopefully it does not truly become one for scarcity…looked at some snowflake macros today that were really cool…up close and all crystal looking….
more snow here thursday, they say
March 4, 2015 at 12:40 am
“Ice, water, and snow.” Should be a song named for this, k.
..
March 4, 2015 at 4:30 am
Sometimes with wet feet we might curse the terrible wetness.. but indeed the beauty of gems can just mimic and imitate the beauty of nature. Have you ever read “The Nightingale” by Hans Christian Andersen? Where the emperor finally realize that he can only be saved with the song of the real bird when is mechanical bejeweled copy is gone… clean water is slowly becoming rare, as is the possibility of admiring the icicle sparkle from eaves in the sun.
March 4, 2015 at 8:52 am
We should certainly not turn a blind eye to the things which sparkle around us in every kind of weather.
March 4, 2015 at 9:25 am
You make it quite fascinating to look beneath our human skins and see what lives there, what hulking shapes or graceful stems, from the unthinking past all organisms share. Water is precious as any gem, and full of(my favorite line) “the heady availability/of beauty..’ that surrounds us. I also especially love the perspective and point of view on this one, k. It’s so easy to personalize and personify down the micro-millimeter and think everything wells from our own experience–this looks at things with a little less of a squint.
March 4, 2015 at 10:52 am
Swimming in the Gulf of Mexico during a summer rain shower–no field of diamonds could be more beautiful than those drops hitting the water!
March 5, 2015 at 5:57 pm
Thanks mark.
>
March 4, 2015 at 12:47 pm
Before I read a word, I’ll say that the picture looks like a dessert!
I really love your poem. The sound throughout, but especially in the first stanza, just melted me into a state of blissful relaxation. I literally felt a change in my muscles.
“whether it’s not the plant in us
that is so awed by diamonds” … my favorite part
Water-worship. Brilliant.
Absolutely fabulous poem.
March 5, 2015 at 5:56 pm
Hey shawna– I’m sorry I missed your blog– are you up somewhere? K.
>
March 4, 2015 at 2:19 pm
Wonderful imagery and I especially love the last stanza.
March 4, 2015 at 6:23 pm
I find it fascinating that we look at beauty as we do—the rare? perhaps! I do think we are lucky if we drink deep of anything really–Your work always takes me to unexpected places inside myself–lovey write!
March 4, 2015 at 9:02 pm
Fresh water – it is something many take for granted… yet something that people would gladly trade most anything for if they needed to!
March 5, 2015 at 9:59 am
You echo my sentiments about the snow exactly! I love the turnabout with describing jewels as snowlike instead of the other way around. Wonderful!
March 6, 2015 at 6:17 pm
“Crystallized clots of gritted ice collated by plow” I love that. There is no snow here, but you have captured the feeling I remember well of snow bound days.
March 6, 2015 at 6:19 pm
Ha! Hi Susie–we are really pretty inundated. I like it in a way as we ski–cross country, etc–right now that is quite suicidal however, as the snow has an ice cover. Thanks. k.
March 7, 2015 at 8:03 am
Love this observation, Karin. I’ve been musing about the mess at the end of our driveway…. ice, mud, large and small chunks of blacktop. It’s covered again by glistening snow now, but in between, it is solid as rock and shines all brown/grey and really looks like marble or some other fancy layered thing you’d pay to view and touch at a geology museum.
March 7, 2015 at 8:09 am
Yes, doesn’t it? Ours doesn’t get so dirty in the country as we have very little traffic here, but of course, there are the plows!
Thanks, Marian. k.
On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 8:03 AM, ManicDDaily wrote:
>