Thursday, August 20, 2009

A Thousand Threads In One (formerly Thread Prologue); finished poem

I bend to look at a thread:
it runs ahead too far to see
and the beginning of it, far off behind,
a dot in the endless distance.
This thread worn but not frayed,
copper brown through the long passage of time.
And as if peering down a microscope
I see that it splits into a thousand smaller strands,
some thin but well worn burs whose itch tell a tale;
others robust, full and smooth to the touch, lightly used and ready for any task;
some long, pulled thin but still clinging with what little it might pull;
some stained-changed color to dark red, brown-blood wrought from tears and toils;
some colored the color of love of life;
pale gold and silver reflections of starlight.
One thread in a thousand. A thousand threads in one.

4 comments:

Cassie said...

threads are a theme in your writing... of stitches and sewing, etc.

does the thread (and connectivity in general) have an end-point (as threads, do)? i love the visual in this poem that it travels to a singular point in an unknowable distance.

beautifully written. sparse, thoughtful, and faceted metaphor.

Rory Gibbens said...

What I'm working on at the beginning of the poem is a visual of the thread passing from far behind me and running out far off in front of me into an unknowable distance. Who knows how long the thread will run?

Rory Gibbens said...

As indicated by the title, this is a prologue poem to a large series of poems.c

Rory Gibbens said...

The entire Thread series is being renamed to reflect their identities as independent poems.