Lesson of the Pearl

This poem is for a man, Kawula Luna, I met at Wialua Falls who makes and sells jewelry.  He is also a natural storyteller.  Kawula showed us how to focus on the water falling and then to move our gaze to see the plates on the canyon walls shift.  A really  cool optical illusion.

Consider
the single grain
of sand--
can't be brushed off,
can't be blown off--
irritating.

Always,
sticking,
poking, jabbing--
a nuisance.

The oyster
can't call quits,
doesn't complain,
just worries
the problem.

Around
and around
the oyster
adds spit
and saliva,
polishes
the problem
and creates
beauty
in a single drop--
of pearl.

      Gems and Jewels have magical power.  Can you write your own poem today about a jewel that has magic for you?  Think about a fairy tale you might want to make into a poem.

HOUR GLASS

the sand

drops

slowly

grain

by grain

never

to drop

again

toward

the end

sand begins

to spin

racing out

the narrow bend

of the hourglass

again

      I've always been fascinated by hourglasses and three minute timers.  Far more fascinated than shaking an watching snow globes.  Happy Sunday.  Someone once made the comment that the difference between prose and poetry, is that the poet gets to control the length of the line.  Wish I knew who said it, I'd give him credit.  But it is all about choices and the poet gets to make lots of them.  In this poem I made the choice not to use punctuation.  It wasn't laziness, but the poet's choice to emphasize the meaning of each word I have carefully selected to go with this subject matter.  But, even as I have gotten this far with the poem, I'm wondering if I could convey even more meaning with the metaphor, if I tried to make this into a concrete poem.

the gritty sand

drops slowly

grain by

grain

never

to drop

again

to-

ward

the end

the sand 

begins to spin

racing out the

narrow glass bend

of the hourglass again

    What do you think?  There is more tweaking to do, so I'm having fun.  There is so much work to do.

     I know, your challenge for today is to think of a tool you use and compare it to an animal to make your own metaphor.  Can you write a poem today with a simile or metaphor in it?