Posted by it’s day 6 in tupelo’s 30/30 project, the december edition. i struggled yesterday to get something onto the page, and i struggled today, too. i just couldn’t settle in. it’s possible that i’m thinking too much: it’s been known to happen. even still, i got out of today’s draft at least a few phrases i like — and they came after i let myself be playful. i have the most fun when i start with play earlier in the process, but every day is different!
though i’m going to do something different over the weekend, today i continued to work in 14 lines: a sonnet-like thing called, for now, “december sonnet #6: the strength of.” here’s a preview:
size up [orgasm] by how closely it resembles unveiling, the lifting
of the sun enough it goes the rest of the way itself. Except –
let it not be pretty. Let it be the mess and decisiveness
of the butcher: how the cleaver does not stop at thigh, gets
down to femur.
want more? i think you do! c’mon, it’s about orgasm, AND i included a fun sex fact about chimpanzees! PLUS there are other poems there by my fabulous fellow december-ists. go get “some.”
note: the image here is a close-crop of a pic from a 2009 NYT article on young butchers. upon revision, i may mine the article for additional inspiration. you can click through to the article, as well, via the image.
The entire poem is worth the extraordinary effort of clicking the link. Especially because it ends with “of.” How many other good poems end with “of”? How many good poems about sex end with “of”? We’re getting into rar3fied air, here.