Fog hovers over fields, and blue hovers over fog, and what’s with all the hovering? All the inching close and almost? If you want to be wet and gray, then go ahead, wrap me in rain. If you want to be a burn of blue, go ahead, scorch me.
I love this ode to lukewarmth! It’s a maligned word and concept, but as you say, “there is a grace here in the center, free from the edges...” So lovely!
Amen, Larry! I feel this, deeply. "But there is a grace here in the center/free from the edges" Yes, those edges can (and often do) slice deeply. Seems that you and I were feeling into lukewarm on a similar wavelength.
I like the dare you land on as you muse about the ambivalence of the atmosphere and its intentions. My experience with poetry is that it writes itself through me. I often feel quite surprised by what it does.
This is so clever and engaging! "Who is this Luke and why do we insist he was warm when he was tepid at best?" 😂 There's so much humor and so much profundity in your poem. I've been thinking the past few days about how humor seems to be a default place I go in most areas of my life, but it doesn't appear all that often in my poetry . . . something for me to play around with.
Nice work, Keith. I have long wondered who Luke was and why he was warm. The Luke of the Gospel attributed to them found a distinct way through the middle. I love your ending, and feel inspired to write a new beatitudes emanating from Luke-warm!
Haha, thank you Larry! I'm not surprised to hear that you joined me in wondering about Luke and his purported warmth! I love the idea of you writing a new beatitudes that center luke-warmth! I do think the middle way is a gentle way. I wish it were embraced more in this country.
I love the slight despondence of "All the inching close and almost" and then the punch of "scorch me". It's really interesting what you say about writing poems that feel mysterious to you. It's somewhat akin to the concept of morning pages from The Artists Way, in that, you allow yourself to write what comes to you, and can sometimes be surprised by "oh, so that's what was in my head".
All those classes where we try and parse out what the poet meant; it's kind of fun to think that maybe the poem was delightfully surprising for the poet too!
Thank you, Akshita! It’s funny that you should mention the Artist’s Way because I just started it (yesterday was day one for me) for the second time. It definitely seems to me that there is far more kicking about in the unconscious mind than we might think . . . and my favorite writing moments are the ones when something bubbles up and catches me by surprise.
I really lOVED this poem - the ambiguity, followed by the challenge, and the visceral energy of both the language and the content - and it's just beautifully written. I wanted more!! If you add another stanza you should submit this to some lit journals because it's good stuff :)
and yes - I've been trying to get more comfortable as well with poems that express strong, even unpleasant emotions, or that have some ambiguity to them. That's where a lot of art lives and I don't want to block myself off from it, as a fellow suffererer of strong reactions and feelings!!
Thank you, Claire! I may end up adding a stanza because as I’ve sat with the question of where this poem came from, juicy stuff began rising to the surface.
I hear you on writing poems that I don't totally understand myself! These are actually my favorite kind of poem, though sometimes I wonder if they are fake-deep since I can't (and don't really care to) articulate the meaning. Here's today's such poem. All I can really say is that it was inspired by a nosebleed. ;)
What a sweet gem, Rebekah! Your poem is full of such mesmerising lines: "Swiping at it, I came us just as bloody/as everyone erlse...Everything is cooler than this ambient world...I stooped again./put down my full signature/and this time didn't bother/to bow my head." What a creative, playful and deep way you have with words and describing your perceptions and take aways from the world around you.
What a marvelous poem, Lisa. And incredibly creative and evocative writing and prompt that follows the poem. I recall lyrical songwriters often bristling when asked what their songs mean. I wonder, does that matter as much as what a poem or song might mean to me? Is it wise to trust in the muse, whatever that may be, and go into the flow of the direction the creative spirit is leading? Do the meanings of our poems become clearer to us much later? Or perhaps delve deeper into places we may not have sensed at the time? I don’t know, but your fine poem and questions have me wondering.
Wise, Larry! I think it could mean something different every single day for both the reading and writer, or songwriter and song enjoyer, on a daily basis. We'll hear different things, depending on our mindset and mood and probably a million other reasons, too. But, whatever we hear is what we're meant to hear in that moment, it is perfection. XO
Also! I really love your blog because it's quite similar in concept to mine: I set out to write one poem a week for a year (I'm a little over a month in so far), for the glory of God
That’s awesome, Claire! I love how this commitment to my creativity and to sharing it in community has expanded my life this year. I hope your experience is similarly rewarding!
Thanks for this prompt and I do like the concept of it - what is the saying "I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all..." (well IDK if it is a saying but it is a line in a Lady A song) I find a lot of the feelings issues coming up lately with trying to regulate my meds and my mood swings. Lukewarm is worse than bad sometimes.
I definitely find numbness or apathy to be my least favorite emotional state! I like to feel alive - even if it hurts (obviously I prefer the happy states over the painful ones).
Full surrender - to a poem, a relationship, an emotion, a difficult insight, love, God, or anything else is somehow both the hardest and the simplest thing!
I really like this description and like that it’s different from my initial associations with the word. It’s interesting to think about how well humans manage to communicate (much of the time), even with the reality that we all relate to individual words a little bit differently.
Here is my take on lukewarm!
Lukewarm
^
Between fire and ice,
heat and cold,
right and wrong,
is a sweet a place of soothing
soulful breeze.
Some may call it Lukewarm,
tepid and bland,
without enthusiasm or zeal.
But there is a grace here in the center,
free from the edges
where the danger of falling into
an abyss of absolute thought
looms large.
Here in this space,
cycling in circles and
nonlinearity,
releasing the duality that has ruled my heart,
I feel peace
I find compassion,
I know love.
From here
I see you more clearly.
This is so lovely.
I love this ode to lukewarmth! It’s a maligned word and concept, but as you say, “there is a grace here in the center, free from the edges...” So lovely!
Thank you Rebekah!
Ah that is nice and a new way for me to think about it! a "grace here in the center" Heaven knows I need to find that center more often!
Don’t we all! I spend much of my time off center!
Amen, Larry! I feel this, deeply. "But there is a grace here in the center/free from the edges" Yes, those edges can (and often do) slice deeply. Seems that you and I were feeling into lukewarm on a similar wavelength.
Thank you Keith! Yes, we were on the Lukan wave length—brothers in the lukewarm middle!
....I see you more clearly.....
( without the fire and ice obscuring my vision)
Hmmmmm.
Tapping forehead.
Chuck, Tapping is richly encouraged!
"JESUS, PARAPHRASED"
.
Lukewarm is bullshit
Gimmie red hot or ice cold
Something to work with.
.
Haha, this is great! You never waste words.
Agreed!
LOL!! That's amazing, Chuck. XO
Amen, Chuck
I don’t want to live
A lukewarm life.
Tepid, timid, indifferent, apathetic.
Only surviving, never thriving.
Plotting along the center line,
Not too fast, not too slow.
Sailing across placid waters,
Don’t make waves, don’t rock the boat
I’d rather hit the highs and lows
When life burns hot and fires up my soul.
And take the downtimes as they come
The cold shall pass and I’ll move on.
I don't want to live a lukewarm life either, Karri, and I love your spirited poem!
I like the zest of this one, Karri - a nice counterbalance to the middle way I've centered in my poem this time :))
I feel this sentiment deeply.
I like this Karri! Very hopeful and true.
I like the dare you land on as you muse about the ambivalence of the atmosphere and its intentions. My experience with poetry is that it writes itself through me. I often feel quite surprised by what it does.
*
Who was this Luke and
why do we insist he was warm,
when he was tepid at best?
Without better data, we can only guess
whether his temperature was
rising or falling, moving toward
freezing or scalding or neither,
just lolling
somewhere in the moderate middle.
And then there’s the history
of the biblical mystery.
How did Mr. Warm wind up
on God’s shit list,
swilled then dismissed
for being in between?
As though God judges on a binary
and favors extremes?
Blessed are the meek,
for they shall rest in the mean.
This is so clever and engaging! "Who is this Luke and why do we insist he was warm when he was tepid at best?" 😂 There's so much humor and so much profundity in your poem. I've been thinking the past few days about how humor seems to be a default place I go in most areas of my life, but it doesn't appear all that often in my poetry . . . something for me to play around with.
Thanks, friend. I look forward to seeing your trademark Lisa Jensen humor expressed poetically!
I found out from somewhere i cannot remember that
another translation of the word "blessed" is "happy".
Oh yes, that works well..."happy are the meek for they shall rest in the mean." I like it :))
Nice work, Keith. I have long wondered who Luke was and why he was warm. The Luke of the Gospel attributed to them found a distinct way through the middle. I love your ending, and feel inspired to write a new beatitudes emanating from Luke-warm!
Haha, thank you Larry! I'm not surprised to hear that you joined me in wondering about Luke and his purported warmth! I love the idea of you writing a new beatitudes that center luke-warmth! I do think the middle way is a gentle way. I wish it were embraced more in this country.
This is a delightful poem, Keith! As with a lot of yours, fun to read out loud. “Blessed are the meek, / for they shall rest in the mean” — so good!
Very nice Keith!!
Thanks, Karri!
I love the cleverness of this, Keith.
I love the slight despondence of "All the inching close and almost" and then the punch of "scorch me". It's really interesting what you say about writing poems that feel mysterious to you. It's somewhat akin to the concept of morning pages from The Artists Way, in that, you allow yourself to write what comes to you, and can sometimes be surprised by "oh, so that's what was in my head".
All those classes where we try and parse out what the poet meant; it's kind of fun to think that maybe the poem was delightfully surprising for the poet too!
Thank you, Akshita! It’s funny that you should mention the Artist’s Way because I just started it (yesterday was day one for me) for the second time. It definitely seems to me that there is far more kicking about in the unconscious mind than we might think . . . and my favorite writing moments are the ones when something bubbles up and catches me by surprise.
Tell me more Akshita and Lisa - what is The Artist's Way?
"No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader."--Robert Frost
Oooh what a great quote! Thank you for sharing this!
I really lOVED this poem - the ambiguity, followed by the challenge, and the visceral energy of both the language and the content - and it's just beautifully written. I wanted more!! If you add another stanza you should submit this to some lit journals because it's good stuff :)
and yes - I've been trying to get more comfortable as well with poems that express strong, even unpleasant emotions, or that have some ambiguity to them. That's where a lot of art lives and I don't want to block myself off from it, as a fellow suffererer of strong reactions and feelings!!
Thank you, Claire! I may end up adding a stanza because as I’ve sat with the question of where this poem came from, juicy stuff began rising to the surface.
I hear you on writing poems that I don't totally understand myself! These are actually my favorite kind of poem, though sometimes I wonder if they are fake-deep since I can't (and don't really care to) articulate the meaning. Here's today's such poem. All I can really say is that it was inspired by a nosebleed. ;)
.
Where the trickle cuts through the burn
I stooped to wash my face, giving
.
that much more soot to the ocean.
Unburdened, I rose
.
and wondered at the water
still streaming over my mouth.
.
It must have been lukewarm, but I didn’t notice.
Everything is cooler than this ambient world.
.
Swiping at it, I came up just as bloody
as everyone else.
.
I stooped again, put down my full signature,
and this time didn’t bother
to bow my head.
Yay for mystery, boo for nosebleeds!
"Everything is cooler than this ambient world" is such a seemingly simple line but packs such a punch.
What a sweet gem, Rebekah! Your poem is full of such mesmerising lines: "Swiping at it, I came us just as bloody/as everyone erlse...Everything is cooler than this ambient world...I stooped again./put down my full signature/and this time didn't bother/to bow my head." What a creative, playful and deep way you have with words and describing your perceptions and take aways from the world around you.
This is one of those poems that I don't understand but I still really like (usually they bother me😅).
What a marvelous poem, Lisa. And incredibly creative and evocative writing and prompt that follows the poem. I recall lyrical songwriters often bristling when asked what their songs mean. I wonder, does that matter as much as what a poem or song might mean to me? Is it wise to trust in the muse, whatever that may be, and go into the flow of the direction the creative spirit is leading? Do the meanings of our poems become clearer to us much later? Or perhaps delve deeper into places we may not have sensed at the time? I don’t know, but your fine poem and questions have me wondering.
Wise, Larry! I think it could mean something different every single day for both the reading and writer, or songwriter and song enjoyer, on a daily basis. We'll hear different things, depending on our mindset and mood and probably a million other reasons, too. But, whatever we hear is what we're meant to hear in that moment, it is perfection. XO
Brilliantly said, Danielle!
Also! I really love your blog because it's quite similar in concept to mine: I set out to write one poem a week for a year (I'm a little over a month in so far), for the glory of God
That’s awesome, Claire! I love how this commitment to my creativity and to sharing it in community has expanded my life this year. I hope your experience is similarly rewarding!
Thanks for this prompt and I do like the concept of it - what is the saying "I'd rather hurt than feel nothing at all..." (well IDK if it is a saying but it is a line in a Lady A song) I find a lot of the feelings issues coming up lately with trying to regulate my meds and my mood swings. Lukewarm is worse than bad sometimes.
I definitely find numbness or apathy to be my least favorite emotional state! I like to feel alive - even if it hurts (obviously I prefer the happy states over the painful ones).
I echo this, Karri!
!!!!!!! Short and powerful--I love it.
Thanks, Margaret!
"inching close and almost"
Arrghhhh.
"The middle is where melody manifests" - that feels like a micro poem!
Full surrender - to a poem, a relationship, an emotion, a difficult insight, love, God, or anything else is somehow both the hardest and the simplest thing!
Lisa, your heart and spirit are as big as the world!
Blessings to you Billy.
I really like this description and like that it’s different from my initial associations with the word. It’s interesting to think about how well humans manage to communicate (much of the time), even with the reality that we all relate to individual words a little bit differently.
Hmmm...you just opened up a different perspective of lukewarm for me, thank you! XO