Friday, October 26, 2012

Reasons Why Not

....to crack a Walnut…                      

Of all the nuts they say
are good for you, one wins
out in front by a whisker:
Nature’s tooled Netsuke
in the shape of your brain.

You may well need
its white squiggly crunch
of protein
glazed and shining,
like a Botticelli cloud,
reined in by a husk;
yet much more than its
gonad-protecting,
memory enhancing,
artery-washing nutrients
you need the dream
of the walnut, the inside-
its-shell stage, where
a perfectly-formed
concert grand is waiting
for the femininity and lyricism
of Mitsuko Uchida.

You can't know
that that's not true:
or never have heard her play Mozart
just look a little closer
at the walnut
and see how it’s made
of two halves – a left
and a right side
you might say –
and how each is shaped
like a coracle, sailing
where two oceans meet.



_______________________________________


4 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

This is first-rate stuff not least from those bang-bang short syllable lines (sorry about the lack of echt poetic terms) esp:

gonad-protecting,
memory enhancing
artery-washing nutrients.

I even got the Botticelli clouds reference. A salutary example of how our objects of worship must be approached sidy-ways (A Scottish variant which, I think, enhances the original) in order to suppress even the tiniest tendency to gush. And with Uchida it's pretty strong.

But you're also a source of despair. Free verse for me is essentially shackled, I cannot even make the first step. Whereas you are able to absorb aberrant stresses and added syllables and make them work for you. I have some verse in mind at the moment but, alas, it can only a sonnet.

Oh, and the masterfully simple last section. No poetic guff there (or elsewhere). My congratulations.

Unknown said...

Wallnuts are like netsuke and they do recall the human brain. You have packed a lot into this nutshell.

Lucas said...

Many thanks to both commentators. Much appreciated.

Lucas said...

Many thanks to both commentators. Much appreciated.