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

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

There Should Be a Word

There should be a word
for the experience of newly washed cotton sheets
hanging on the clothesline
A word that expresses
more than the fresh, clean smell of linen
more than the buttery warmth of the sun
on your face when you look up
to fasten the clothespins
more than the feeling
of home
of renewal
of nostalgia for apple pie cooling on the window pane
(even if your mother never baked apple pie)
A word for the wholeness of the experience

I'm thinking of a word
like petrichor
Petrichor captures the entire sensuousness
of the just-having-rained feeling
Say that one word
and everyone knows exactly what you mean
(once you define it for them)

There should be more
of these words
but since there are not,
I present to you a picture:
Newly washed cotton sheets
hanging on a clothesline
I hope that you understand.

submitted for Magpie Tales, Mag 252
and Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, The Tuesday Platform

13 comments:

PirateGunn said...

Very nice concept

Berowne said...

Beautiful response to the prompt...

Marcoantonio Arellano (Nene) said...

this gives me such nostalgia.
mamasita used to hang our clothes in the back yard. as a young child, i hated to hang clothes especially wet jeans and sheets. they were so heavy and awkward for a little guy. i can hear the wooden clothe pins clicking in the basket as i threw them taking down the clothes.

gracias for the memories, mi amiga

brudberg said...

There are such words.. but not for those linen smells.... One of my favorite words in Swedish has no correspondence in English...

It's word that describe of snow melting in the first warm sun, and when water is dropping from the eaves...

dagsmeja such a simple word, yet gives all those feeling for a Swede, like the petrichor..

Gillena Cox said...

the one word i would assign to your poem is 'sway'

nice write




╲\╭┓╱
╭✿ ╯Happy New Year
┗╯\╲

http://myblog-verses.blogspot.com/2015/01/one-word-listening.html

much love...

Kerry O'Connor said...

Yes, I do.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I love this. So many clotheslines in my memory and I still have one today. It always stood for home and security and normal life, especially in the years when my life had none of those things........

Yvonne Osborne said...

My favorite word is cozy which those sheets will make me feel.

I must confess I looked up your made-up word in the dictionary!

Susie Clevenger said...

I do understand. Beautiful

hedgewitch said...

Exactly. Our language too often dilutes rather than condenses things--well said, with a softness to it, LM--like the way it drifts down the page like dustmotes in sunbeams.

Michael said...

that was fun to read. there should be! I demand it

Marian said...

Love this!

Tess Kincaid said...

There are not nearly enough words...enjoyed this very much, Mouse...