It's just poetry, it won't bite

Ink


09.10.12 Posted in words to linger on by

Rae Spencer’s most recent poem to appear here was The Road (June 2012).

Ink
By Rae Spencer

No matter the substrate

Ink will archive matte
Empty, void of reflection
The dark recess of an open mouth

Each word its lips and breath

Speaking

What cannot be known

What came before “I”

Spilled across the blank territory

That is everyone else

Like I

Ink is singular

All the long river of words

Poured across our one past

The infinite stain 

Of what we have writ

Poised on the hot velvet tongue

In the dark recess of an open mouth

Clef syllables

And stipple iambs

Even the click consonant

An illumination of phonemes

Unspoken

Yet to be scribed

Added and added and added

Never to be plural

Mine and yours and theirs

Accumulate in the eye

Of the reader

Yet to be born

Who holds our one past

Cupped in the slack curl of their tongue

The immutable history

That is ink left on a page



5 Responses to “Ink”

  1. Sharon Poch says:

    A brilliant poem stressing the power of words born and unborn. I am awed by your usage of the language.
    Sharon Poch

  2. Jeanette Gallagher says:

    Oh Rae, you’ve done it again! A spectular poem that speaks of writer and reader and literature! Beautiful!

  3. Marty Basden says:

    Rae;
    As usual, I am awed by your creative language. We all hope that what is put to page will endure. Yours does.

  4. bobbietroy says:

    Love it!

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