“Expect poison from the standing water.”
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Would we commit ourselves
to the vacuum of space,
knowing it means loss
of everything green and blue?
To be a stranger,
to marry the abysmal end
of all earthly things?
The well is poisoned
but we lay out the silver cutlery.
Are we willing to walk
naked through molten fields
to become as one?
The hands of the clock
are ticking in retrograde.
Could we cast off together
from the old world
to sanctify the new,
notwithstanding?
Day 7 ~ Marriage
Marian is our host in The Imaginary Garden with Just One Word: Etiquette.
Ohhhhh, I really like the mash up here of space travel and antiquated expectations. And I am a big fan of those two lines about the poisoned well and silver cutlery. What I find most intriguing here is that this reads like a dinner party conversation that I want to be part of. Well done and viva la!
ReplyDeleteMy kind of 'marriage of true minds'.
Delete;-)
I absolutely love the dystopian feel to this poem, Kerry!💞 Especially these lines; "Could we cast off together from the old world to sanctify the new,
ReplyDeletenotwithstanding?" are gold!😊
That's great! Thanks, Sanaa. What could be more dystopian than marriage?
Delete;-)
OMG hahaahhaha well. What could be? My goodness. Why oh why would anyone give up that green and blue? This poem is making me ponder variously. :)
DeleteIf I ever get married again it will be at knife-point after having been heavily drugged. Long live the green and blue, though! You can keep space, there aren't any salons there.
DeleteI hear you on the knife-point and drugging!
DeleteOh WOW! The well is poisoned but we lay out the best cutlery. SO TRUE!!!!! Denial! The loss of everything green and blue weighs on my heart. But it might take the molten ground to wake us up. Sigh. Fantastic writing, as always, Kerry.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you read my metaphors another way, Sherry. The poem is not only or even about marriage at all.
DeleteYour poem might be the best way to describe why I've never understood things like bachelor and bachelorette parties traditions. I've always thought that being married should mean finding someone with whom we can continue to do the things we already love, a way to add to our merry, a person to discuss all the funny scratches we'll certainly get while walking those molten fields as one always made of two.
ReplyDeleteI hate all things 'traditional' especially as most that relate to weddings are related to handing over women as property thinly disguised as some kind of fairytale. But I do believe in commitment and that leap of faith into the vast unknown, but it is not for the faint of heart.
DeleteWhen our minister was counseling my husband and I prior to our marriage (A requirement in the UNC church, did we truly love each other. He explained that dying for each other was easy but what would we truly do. I told him I loved Brad enuff to crawl over broken glass for him. I still feel this,way tiday.
ReplyDeleteThat is wonderful, Toni.
DeleteWhen meeting with friends, last week....one said, "Marriage....I wonder?" I always said, I did it one way, and it will be up to the children to do it their way. Time changes how we look at things. I'm not sure...the discussion ever got beyond the wedding? I was lucky with my Husband, now I live as I like, and would probably never marry again.
ReplyDeleteI encourage my own children not to rush into marriage as if it were a social obligation. Marriage can be a fulfilling enterprise for several years but one can never predict how people will change over time. Expectations are different in the 21st century.
DeleteI've experienced the disastrous, the mixed, and the happy, in that order. I do think it is one of the greatest adventures; certainly setting off into outer space is a good metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI have observed that the most splendid weddings, cutlery and every other conventional detail impressively perfect and beautiful, tend to end in messy divorces a few years later!
So true, Rosemary. And you got exactly what I intended with the metaphor - we enter into marriage, leaving behind the known world, joining a virtual stranger in an alien environment.
DeleteMaybe the institution of marriage has outlived its usefulness... the most beautiful things don't necessarily need public sanction.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree - marriage is a union agreed upon between individuals and may not fit a presupposed paradigm.
DeleteHits home. My son's recent wedding was officiated by a dear friend (not clergy) and they personalized everything on a shoe string budget. Being writers and actors, their attention to personal details was stunning. Light filled the room and William's poetry (much of it written FOR his new wife over the years) was in books and vases along the huge windows, folded up, rolled up, photo copied onto small paper. They sang along with the band, Will and his new wife, as they are both singers... it was fabulous. Lots of dancing ... and again - as Rosemary points out - it was about emotions and connecting - not cutlery and conventional perfection. Their marriage is one built on a foundation of being equal... I can't imagine it otherwise - it would be hell!
ReplyDeleteHow truly wonderful, Margaret.
DeleteI am not sure I could give up green and blue. Oh the dreams we have don't match reality. Marriage is certainly a trip. :)
ReplyDeletefor some reason I'm reminded of the doomsday clock ~
ReplyDelete