Posted in Poetry

Red; Green;

Posted on by jillys2016

I graze on violent hay

ruminate

ruminate

swim for the harbor lights

Gatsby symbolism

in a Li-Young Lee

world where I can’t chew

fast enough to digest

all that this world wants

meeee to doooo

while I search for the gift

of a splinter.

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

Lillian bids us ‘harbor’ a quadrille over at d’Verse Poet’s Pub. Join us!

The Gift by Li-Young Lee remains a personal favorite.  Just finishing a poetry unit in my classroom in which we read and analyze four poems that deal with father-child relationships.  Also included are Blood by Naomi Shihab Nye, Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden, and Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll.

Author:

A wild soul writing poetry.

42 thoughts on “Red; Green;”

  6. …the violent hay … swimming for harbor lights….unable to “chew fast enough to digest
    all that this world wants meeee to doooo — to find the proverbial toothpick in a haystack (that splinter) seems to me to be saying — in this hubbub — we try to find a sliver of sanity, a safe harbor. Love your post here — really engaged me! 🙂

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  8. SMiLes.. Gift of Google Harbors For All Arts and Sciences From:
    Freed requiring no Middle and or Upper-Men of Harbor
    Or Even Likes.. Shares.. or Follows
    For Even Chinese
    Poets/Artists/
    Scientists
    Who Find A Way
    Past Censorships through
    Proxy Far Beyond Any Necessity
    of Named Ancestry where even Wiki Entries
    no longer matter For Top Search Results that
    Relatively Last Forever now out of School Grades
    And Work and all Currency other
    Than A Law oF LoVE For Arts
    And Sciences
    JusT
    Free
    to:
    ‘be me’/US

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  12. The “chewing on violent hay” creates a background for this rumination. Swimming for the harbor lights and looking for that gift create a little bit of hope to get away from all the violence and intolerance we see around.
    Thanks for sharing the link to the Lee poem; it gives a new perspective.
    -HA

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  13. We live at an accelerated pace, weighed down with techno-toys, and it pleases me several times a week to slow things down to a poetic whisper (or shout), and share creative energy all over this globe at the crossroads; the dVerse Pub.

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  17. Sometimes, as the world keeps us busy, busier, busiest, the hardest thing we do is keep the lights in proper alignment (Red; Green). And with all we have to do, do we have time to ruminate on greater things — the light at the end of the dock, the gift of two diverse fathers (Li and Carraway’s) — do we have the wherewithal to consider the flame? Brilliant write, Jilly!

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  20. I like the repetition of ‘ruminate’, Jill, which makes me stop and think about the ‘violent hay’, and the idea of not being able to keep up with everything expressed in the lines:
    ‘…world where I can’t chew
    fast enough to digest
    all that this world wants
    meeee to doooo’ –
    it reminds me of not waving but drowning. Is the splinter a gilded one?

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  21. while I search for the gift of a splinter – i ruminated over these words Jilly – that the splinter would stop all the meaningless chewing and trying to achieve an unreal expectation. so much in this poem that keeps me reading it over and over.

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  23. Oh dang I haven’t read Li-Young Lee, but I love the discomfort in this poem, the violent hay and searching for the gift of a splinter. Had to laugh at the mooing vowels, love how your unique voice always comes through consistently.

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