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Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. Leonard Cohen

Friday, January 20, 2012

Sweet Imagism

Nana's dresser
cracked white paint with
gilding rubbed thin
glass bottles of Opi stand
like multicolored soldiers
Inside
the smell of old lady lavender
utilitarian beige bra
and underneath, her stash
hundreds of little pink packets
Sweet n Low

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Meeting the Bar, Imagism

18 comments:

Claudia said...

hmmmm..love that you wove in some lavender scent...you made me smell your poem...nice

Buddah Moskowitz said...

Wonderful example of imagism. Well done.

Brian Miller said...

haha that sounds like something my gramma would do...she was very frugal...nice textures too in this...

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I love this! It reminds me of the day I ventured into my step-grandmother's bedroom and discovered all her feminine things scattered on her dresser and the top drawwer filled with silk scarves, lace panties and sachets. I never knew women kept such lovely things in their drawers.

Victoria said...

This is a perfect imagist poem. It kind of reminds me of my mom...only it's old lady rose. I guess I'm the one with the OPI.

hedgewitch said...

One of the best of these I've read, lm--you truly build, very simply, a picture that shows it all, rather than says it. Very good poem, and I think my grandma had a corset and old beads in hers, but same principle.

Ravenblack said...

Nice effort! Colors, textures, smells. This reminds me of when I was a child and how I would rampage through my grandma's drawers and cupboard. lol!

Anonymous said...

Love, love, love this! That is imagism at its finest. :) (I think)

My favorites:
"multicolored soldiers"

"old lady lavender
utilitarian beige bra"

And ending with the Sweet-n-Low stash was priceless!

Marbles in My Pocket said...

Very nice, Lola. I love the picture you paint with words! I can see it so clearly!

http://charleslmashburn.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/black-words/

BragonDorn said...

What?!? Maybe she used the Sweet and low as snow for battles in the tundra?

Fireblossom said...

Gawd. Such a perfect depiction of an old lady's space. Don't forget the teensy plastic bags saved from the drug store, to use for her tiny little weekly trash to set at the curb, and the waddy Kleenexes tucked up her sleeve and then left in the grocery cart at the store.

Bryan White said...

She stashes Sweet n Low in her dresser?

not displayed said...

This is so what my Nana was like.
Except for her it was peppermints and panamax (a head ache tablet)

Kara said...

This piece just brought back a wonderful memory of my mother's chiffonier. Thanks you :)

JustRex said...

hee hee hee! That gave me the giggles.

Confused By Synonyms said...

Opi? Opie? Opium? Opine?

Pat Tillett said...

Very good and very whimsical!

Anonymous said...

Remarkable, how you married the ordinary with the
extraordinary little joys found in life and under
our sashes.