Thursday, January 28, 2010

Pickled by Janis Tan

Pickled
by Janis Tan


P
 l
  u
    n
     g
      e
       d

     straight

i
n
t
o

a pickling solution of sadness
and
grief,
disbelief,
anger
and more grief,
Incomprehensible.

Dim.

Soaked,
The salt of sadness
Seeps in,
Bites,
Penetrates.
The wash of grief
Surrounds,
Drowns,
Reverberating.

Time
ticks
         by.

E
 x
   t
    r
     a
      c
        t
         e
          d,

I surface --
Dripping brine,
Salty and cloudy.

Light seeps through.

Taste:
Mellow,
Uneven,
A bite of sadness,
a hint of bitterness, still.
A fleeting sensation of sweet,
Almost discerned.

Bite:
Not too soft,
Not overly hard,
But,
a
satisfying crunch.
(A little giving in,
a little softness,
-- a nuance of acceptance,
perhaps?)

A whiff fleets by ---
    reminder
of
a soreness,
hand goes to
heart.


Pickled in a brine of
grief.
Emotions of all sorts,
Even beauty.

Now,
I am the brine,
and more.

Bigger than the parts,
but
never
whole.

:::
  
about the piece.
In Janis' words, "Never been a good poet, in fact been explicitly told by an editor to 'just stick to prose' but a visual hit me while scrubbing the dishes and I gave in to it, with many apologies to said editor. I find it so hard to 'define' myself as the thread of time unreels, and even harder after sweet Lyra Phoenix was safely born a year ago. This is an attempt to find the edges."

about the poet.
Janis Tan writes on Ferdinand's Gifts. She is still trying to put together the puzzle of her life after her son Ferdinand died, but there is always a missing piece.

7 comments:

  1. Don't listen to said editor. Keep writing poetry and sharing it.

    I love extended analaogies and this one is so well crafted and speaks very powerfully.

    I am so sorry you do not have Ferdinand with you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Isn't it strange how we can describe the taste of a feeling of something with words? thinking about these ways t express our grief. I've been trying to draw the invisible...

    I think you are a very good poet. So keep writing.

    xx Ines

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow...I think this was amazing. You most certainly are a wonderful poet. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pffft! That editor knows nothing! I love this. It's a perfect metaphor for grief and I love the form of the poem too x

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for all your kind words. xo

    ReplyDelete

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