 Elizabeth "Eli" Cleary: Poet, writer, naturalist, amateur carpenter, landscape designer, sister, daughter, aunt, friend with many names: Eli, Whit, Grace (but hide your fine china because she's not graceful, she says.) She aspires to document the beauty and torment played out in her garden daily. If you stopped by, you might catch her digging in the dirt, cooking up a recipe for a poem or stitching together unrelated thoughts... but you probably won't catch her sitting down for too long: too many unfinished poems. Visit her blog - Potting Shed Poetry" |
Between Water and Fire
When waves crush rock into sand
grind grains into glass
then melted hot, soft, pliable
becoming meaningless glob or Lalique
On the way to becoming
an art project collecting dust
or a piece of history
art revered in the grandest collections
Each grain departs from the same beginning
each with dreams of special exhibits
reminiscent of early days
on tours across oceans
Each a piece of this molten earth
now this human experiment
left to the skill of human hands
the judgment of human eyes
bent on transforming this world with fire
ourselves with passion for art
this sand with rod and kiln
Each grain between the fate brought
by the wave and the one after fire
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From "We Shijin Book I" 2004, from Hanover Press
