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Contributor Series 4: Aspects of the Elephant, Our Volition Was in Not Turning


02.15.10 Posted in Contributor Series 4, today's words by

Contributor Series 4: Aspects of the Elephant
Our Volition Was in Not Turning
By Ray Sharp

Scraps of paper
lifted on a careless wind,
these are my verses tonight.
You came to me so–

the familiar face on the
peeling wheatpaste poster
blown across the square,
come alive at my feet,

deft motion of fate’s blind impulse.
This wind was not of our doing.
Our volition was in not turning,
in being that shape in the flow.

Take my hand, you said,
step with me into this landscape,
let us tumble like leaves, let us curl
like tendriled smoke.

It is the same with this poem–
it found me on a windy night,
and when I did not turn away,
that was the beginning of love.


Ray Sharp’s poetry [Two Poems of Snow, Sternwheeler, Clavicle, (  ), Under an August Moon, Threnody, Synesthesia, La Llorona] has appeared at vox poetica in 2009 and 2010.



4 Responses to “Contributor Series 4: Aspects of the Elephant, Our Volition Was in Not Turning”

  1. Jean says:

    Ray, so glad love and this lucious poem blew into your life, and you sailed it toward your audience.

  2. Jessie Carty says:

    what a way to combine love and the writing of poetry 🙂 well done!

  3. Bobbie Troy says:

    Every time I read one of your poems,I say to myself: Ah, he’s done it again. Good work.

  4. “let us curl
    like tendriled smoke.”

    Absolutely love this particular visual Ray.
    Gorgeous piece.
    :0)

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