Monday, July 4, 2011

Tractor Beam

Tractor Beam

The bulb and the moth,
the window it flew through.

The evening sky outside
the house, wrapping its arms

around the shoulders of
our planet, the tall trees,

the skylines. Beyond this,
a place of darkness and fire,

unnavigable because we
cannot think of a way

to get there, an alternate
method of breath, survival.

We see lights, and insist
we are being called there,

the brightness is meant
for us. Some decisions

feel like tractor beams,
harnesses holding us

and dragging us toward
them, we are so small

and helpless. The dark
infinity out there, and

the small radiance in
here, what is beckoning

and just where do we
think we are going.

9 comments

  1. Personally, I have absolutely no idea. I just follow anything bright!

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  2. Love this. I know - I'm repeating myself. I often feel like that moth.

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  3. 'just where do we think we are going'...

    Brilliant piece. Thank you, Hannah.

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  4. I like especially the contrast between the delicacy of moth and heaviness of tractor and harness; "small radiance" is lovely. It reminds me of looking to the sky and seeing only the faintest star and knowing what having the light means. Great concluding lines.

    Happy 4th!

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  5. "The evening sky outside the house, wrapping its arms around the shoulders of our planet" LOVE this line.

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  6. I wish we'd all just spread our wings out, spots and all.

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  7. so very true, and beautifully written

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  8. This is another fine poem that you have written. As noted earlier, the contrast of the fragile moth with the tractor is equisite, and, I'd love to add, an excellent exercise in portraying the innate fragility of life in an otherwise mechanistic world.

    You have great skill at conveying the intimate moments of the world, and this is a feature that I respond to, and am inspired by. Further, the choice of distiches is excellent; the way you construct your unrhymed couplets enhances the fragility of the moth and of the scene, and they also hint towards the self-contained nature of your poem's vision.

    Thank you!

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  9. I like this, H. Am one of those moth-like creatures, I think.

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