Plenty
(words from first and last lines, William Carlos Williams, Selected Poems)
by Lavina Blossom
What roused and filled
the air with hyacinthine
flashes of light like music
flung from anarchy to genius?
Not straight, not suddenly
or entire. Unhurried with its
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green into a marsh of beauty,
like a call, an insistent plea.
Never resting. Sea to land,
women to men, apple tree
to conflagration, an alphabet
written on wind. Wings
beating above snake and rose,
sorrow and love, rain
clearing the windows.
This poem is part of a series, a prolonged challenge I set for myself. Vocabulary for each poem was taken from first and last lines of a poetry collection on my shelf. (The source appears beneath the poem’s title.) As I composed these, I allowed a couple diversions from the set vocabulary. I changed a verb tense or form of a word as needed. And on a few occasions, a word was added to complete a thought. I think of these as collage poems.
