Monday, May 10, 2010

Sisyphus, Possessed

The poet
always stares
skyward, scrambling
for that next Word that kicks
her down to her hands and knees,
left to crawl, blindly scraping
at hard earth with broken
fingernails.

Her eyes,
mirrored only
by Sisyphus. Possessed.
Always pushing up.
Never reaching
the summit.

4 comments:

Edward Yoo said...

Doubling down today for a pass tomorrow. Needed a creative outlet from grading, which I'll finish tomorrow afternoon.

Brent Vogelman said...

I like how you made the poet female because it sets up the contrast with Sisyphus and seems to render them soulmates. Writing poems can seem like a futile enterprise at times and who better to compare this to than Sisyphus.

I wonder about the title of this though. Sisyphus was condemned to do a task in the afterlife. I don't think he was "obsessed" with pushing the boulder up the hill but rather forced because the gods decreed him to do so. I like the word "possessed" though, that works very well and could work as a possible replacement. Just my opinion.

Edward Yoo said...

Possessed is more appropriate, isn't it. Thanks for the suggestion, bud!

Timothy Wildermuth said...

Nice. Very, very, nice...
I love the minimalism and how it achieves such depth.