Even In A Flour Mill Laboratory, Poetic Images Occur Poem by Lillian Susan Thomas
Even In A Flour Mill Laboratory, Poetic Images Occur
The stone walls of the ash oven
Glow; the cracks even redder,
Like veins in the unadorned
Chambers of the heart.
And in this hot mouth
I place all my hopes,
(Not even a handful)
Carried in a small crucible -
There the flour blooms to flame,
Petals flailing out the door
Left ajar,
Flicking air-ward,
Until cruder parts are burnt
Carbon-spent.
And around the edge
A tell-tale residue of sins -
Like a heavy mustache of stolen chocolate -
Smudge the bricks.
In the suck of the vent fan,
A few stray feathers of soot
Will rise as the plumage
Of a dark angel
Would drift in her wake.
But the passion-bright heart
Chews, digests, pulverizes
With pounding muscles
All the uglier motives.
Only the white flake ash remains,
So weightless
A baby's breath could dislodge
My small wafer of soul,
Freeing it from the desiccator's
Iron tomb to flurry in the room.
Carefully I cradle
This Eucharist's bulky garment
Until I can place it
Upon the silver tongue of God's balance
To be weighed back.
Jim has given a neat review on your good write, Lillian...lovely analogies there...life...its pulverising realities...hopes...faith...and the Supreme Judge...thanks...10
In one of the apocryphal gospels Jesus is reported to say, “The kingdom of God is all around us, but men don’t see it.” So it is with poetry. This is just one magnificent example. The initial simile draws the analogy: ash oven: : human heart. From then on, the poetry takes over, drawing analogy after analogy in perceptive, dramatic images as the “hot mouth” of the heart takes in, digests, burns, spews out “cruder pars, ” “residue[s] of sin, ” “uglier motives.” In the end, the speaker’s “small wafer of soul” is all that remains to be weighed by God’s fair “balance.” The heart’s centrality, the essential honesty of the heart in this poem, is the lever upon which the balance of God’s judgment will depend. The Biblical allusions add a strong spiritual element to the workings of the human heart, and of human existence at its very core. The sharp, well-drawn images, and the direct analogies give this poem its great emotional, suggestive power. A great poetic imagination is patently at work here, Ms. Thomas. Powerful. Passionate. Sensual. Great work.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/23/2024 1:06:39 PM # 1.0.0.1119
I am only sorry that I can't visualise the technicalities of the scene, since I am certain there is much more in this poem than I can fully understand. Still, the principles are clear, and the title, just by itself, says much.