I dig and scrape the earth, and not with ease.
It is hard work, I tell you. I have found silver
embedded in the striations of centuries. I touch
galena deposits of steely gray. And then I touch
the limestone above the ore. Imagine the ease
of a billion seashells sifting to the ocean floor, dying for silver.
All that death compressed into mineral for precious silver-
tongued poetry, extracted from lead. I touch
the striations and dig deeper. I do this, but not with ease.
Ease is the sliver of silver phrases I cannot touch.
This is my submission in the yeah write editors’ tritina challenge cooked up by Rowan at yeah write. To learn more about the format, check out this explanation. My three words were: ease, silver, touch.
Stealing Christine’s blog blurb and links:
It’s a yeah write poetry slam! Some of our editors and friends are on a tritina kick lately – in fact, some of us (*ahem*) have admitted that we may have a problem. Want to give one a try? Give us a shout at the coffeehouse and we’ll give you three words. In the meantime, check out the other tritinas this week!
- Arden: Excavation (3 words: mine, treasure, keep)
- Cynthia: (3 words: fair, gold, spun)
- Jenny: The Farmer’s Wife and the Crow (3 words: crow, sorrow, secret)
- Nate: Supersition (3 words: pay, seven, key)
- Christine: Mojave (3 words: hold, fire, drive)
- Rowan: Lunch Date (3 words: mark, steal, lie)
- Stacie: Flip of a Coin (run, coin, fly)
Wow! I love this, especially the way you stretch the first stanza into the second, and your switch in meaning with “silver-tongued poetry.” Wonderful tritina, Meg!
It was hard to do! I wasn’t sure if the shift to poetry would work (or make sense). I now know why so much poetry is hard to understand, especially ones given restrictions. Thanks so much for reading and thinking about this, Silver!
Ahhh….so beautiful! “striation” has always been a favorite word of mine, so it’s no surprise that I was already in love with the title. Then, to read your few short stanzas–you completely drew me in. Just beautiful, Meg. I definitely miss the regular Yeah Write engagement…maybe I’ll be back soon? xo
Hey lady! So good to see you. Thanks for reading and commenting, Michelle. I couldn’t do the yw submission for last week, which had a prompt related to “stone,” but I really wanted to use the word “striation”! So I got it in there this weekend. How is your writing marathon going? Miss seeing you but know how hard it is to work on more than one thing. You are welcome back anytime! xoxo
Well, these are my favorite lines:
” Imagine the ease
of a billion seashells sifting to the ocean floor, dying for silver.
All that death compressed into mineral for precious silver-
tongued poetry, extracted from lead.”
but all the repetition is lovely and your words work together wonderfully. Do you choose the 3 words before you begin?
Thanks, Jennifer! You should do one. Christine mentioned something about handing out words over in the coffeelounge. Rowan gave us each a set of three words. It was challenging. Hope you’re doing well!
Doing great, thanks! I will have to try this. Forms are always a challenge for me. 🙂
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I always love reading your words, Meg! This is no exception.
Gah! I can’t believe it has taken nearly a month for me to respond to comments. Forgive me! Thanks for your sweet words. xo
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