Memory
'Memory' is an original poem created with lines cut and collaged from other poems that were found in the collection
The Terrible Stories by Lucille Clifton (©1996).
It is only titled Memory because I felt I should (re)use one of the titles from the collection for consistency's sake. But in my heart and mind the real title of this piece is "The Great Circulation."
The lines of the poem are affixed to a picture of the Earth (The North Sea) taken from outer space (via Challenger 9, 61A in 1985). This image is from the stupendously beautiful book "The Home Planet" by Kevin Kelly (used in a lot of my artwork.)
TRANSCRIPTION:
Memory
i can scarcely remember
gushing down through my mother
onto the family bed
water earth fire air
all of them carrying yesterday
all of them dragging forward tomorrow.
water
moving and moaning
i can feel it dancing in me,
dancing on the ground
in tears and out of the mist a hand
becomes flesh and i watch
as its pointing fingers spell
why
oh the crack in my heart
filling and emptying
so many questions
all at once
and oh the astonishment
is always flowing. every water
is the same water coming round.
all night i hear the whispering
of our own breathing
through centuries of water
swallowed by the sky.
and i can hear hushed voices
dancing the syllables
brushing against the shadows,
still plentiful as stars.
will i float or drown
is what i ask myself
surrendering
for love
for love
it is the great circulation
whispering mistakenly:
only here. only now.
September 2017
St. Louis, USA