Yesterday JoAnne Growney thought about defining herself by seven objects, but opted in the end for her seven favourite lines of poetry.
When I tried to do the same I found that, in most cases, a single line was too sparse, so I have cheated and come up with seven couplets.
you are the cat’s paw
among the silence of midnight goldfishrose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim
fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wingshe that kisses a joy as it flies
lives in eternity’s sun riseas kingfishers catch fire
dragonflies draw flameash on an old man’s sleeve
is all the ash the burnt roses leavethe ghost of electricity
howls in the bones of her facethe light is still
at the still point of the turning world
I see lines by Hopkins and Eliot and wonder, who are your other poets?
And, as an afterthought, I wonder about pushing the game in the opposite direction. What can be portrayed in 7 WORDS?
Roger McGough, Hopkins, Blake, Hopkins again, Eliot, Bob Dylan, and Eliot again.
I like your new game – I will try to come up with something.
I have to admit that I surprised myself a bit doing this. I didn’t realise that so many of my favourite lines were about birds and fish. I like birds but don’t have much of a relationship with fish. But McGough’s line terrifies me; it was the obvious starting point.
always busy
counting, doubting
every figured guess . . .
May I use this as a new byline for my blog? It hits exactly the right buttons!
Yes, it does summarize well . . .
Thanks – I put it in, as you see!
JoAnne has completed her seven words to a 26-word abecedarian poem, and for good measure also written another: go take a look, they are at http://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.com/2011/11/portraits-of-mathematician.html
Thanks, Peter, for the link.