Poem of the Day: “I Forget Why” by Carol Hamilton, Poet of the Month

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “I Forget Why” by Carol Hamilton, Poet of the Month.  Ms. Hamilton will also be serving as the guest judge for the Songs of Eretz Poetry Award Contest, which will run from September 1 to October 15, 2015.  A detailed biography of Ms. Hamilton may be found here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/2015/08/songs-of-eretz-poetry-review-poet-of.html.  The contest guidelines may be previewed here:  http://eretzsongs.blogspot.com/p/songs-of-eretz.html.

I Forget Why

Carol Hamilton

The clematis lifts its open blossoms

to the sky and insects,

nods with the wind’s moods.

Profuse with purple, each flower

a plate held aloft by a deft waiter.

I see how some wiry little green stems

pull this trick off, make the act

look easy. I once was a waitress.

A one-night stand. I dreamed

adroit moves but found weight

on a tray too shifty for my maneuverings

to be safe. This was small-town

dinner theater, and I was good

with smiles and service, so my lack

of technical skill did not matter.

And that vine has practiced

for a few million years. I was inspired

by the amazing waitress

in the Rockies truck stop who never wrote

the orders down, never forgot. I always

aspire to what I have not earned.

Sometimes I don’t remember why

I made this yard, a place to sit

and do nothing. This is the practice

I must be diligent in. This chair

is the eye of the needle.

Poet’s Notes:  How one thought leads to another! I work in my garden and am often delighted and intrigued with what plants can do, like the clematis flower’s balancing trick. I always want to perfect arts I see others proficient in, and of course, I am being foolish to try to get everything just right, trying to be able to do everything perfectly. My dream garden is the place I would sit every evening, quietly enjoying. In reality, I am usually trying to avoid weed-invasion and so rarely make time to live there. But when I do find those lovely evenings, usually with friends or grandchildren, I do manage to reach my goal for a change.

Editor’s Note:  I enjoy the clematis metaphors here, having never before thought of part of a plant as a “waitress.”  I also like the comparison of the climbing clematis to the aspiring speaker.  The conceit here is interesting, too, with its comparison of the waitressing skills of plant and speaker.  “I Forget Why” was originally published in Potpourri.