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Winds of Time
by Kristina Woodhillon the winds of time
we flew
me and you
our kites
at different heights
yet strong string true
you touched the clouds
reached for the sun
I safely hung
at lower
altitudes, I had
not
no, I had not
your fortitude
you chased the cirrus
acrobatics ward
a turn, a twist then toward
straightway
the roiling thunderheads
their storm now led!
string taut, you held
hard hail pell-melled
rain drenched
the lightning
charged your frame
lit up your pain
I tried to catch your tail
whip-whipping
bruised fingers slipping
and in your final storm
the Glassy String
cut with deaths sting
unleashing and releasing
you beyond
grim pain-filled bonds
your silver cord
dissolved
and you evolved
to greater heights
on winds I
cannot fly
no strings
you now fly free
not yet for me
your distant cloudy hill
sacred sky burial
on winds of time
10/26/2006 Author's Note: Amazingly, my brother has been gone almost a year. The pain has begun to ease, a blessing of the winds of time. Kite strings in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan are coated with ground glass which makes traditional and popular kite flying competitions challenging and sometimes deadly. The object is to cut the other kite strings with your own.
Posted on 10/27/2006
Copyright © 2024 Kristina Woodhill
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Angela Nuzzo on 10/27/06 at 06:25 AM Beautiful use of the kite-flying metaphor. Well done, Kristina. |
| Posted by Chris Sorrenti on 10/27/06 at 04:21 PM Poignant...beautiful analogy, use of metaphor Kristina. Brings back fond memories of my boyhood, when I used to fly kites of the store bought Bat and Stingray varieties. |
| Posted by Gregory O'Neill on 10/27/06 at 07:16 PM Hi Kristina. This is really beautiful. A wonderful reminder that kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. Thanks. |
| Posted by Elizabeth Jill on 10/28/06 at 11:40 PM A year feels so fast. I love this poem... it lifts the breezes into my own feelings of loss. And it's as if the sadness needs to be expressed, and also as if, through this, 'twas listened to.
Shared sky, my friend. Shared sky. |
| Posted by Jean Mollett on 10/30/06 at 06:51 AM Hi Kristina,
It's lovely, yet so sad. I didn't know that about the kites. I'm so sorry to hear about the lost of your brother.
It's a beautiful tribute for him. |
| Posted by Kathleen Wilson on 10/30/06 at 05:15 PM An incredible image to use her, I imagine it came to mind quite deeply and suddenly as a parallel to your experience and feelings. The rhyme in this position is quite a juxtoposition to the airy content, very effective. A lightness is contrast to the serious and powerfully tender topic. |
| Posted by David Hill on 10/30/06 at 11:03 PM Sad,hopeful, and mysterious. It has layers- the difference between close people and the approcah taken to life, and always this potent fact: "not yet for me." For whom the wind (bell) blows (tolls), I suppose... |
| Posted by Leslie Ann Eisenberg on 10/31/06 at 05:46 AM perfection in line and rhythm, effective rhyme, lending a childlike innocence to the voice here. powerful emotions conjured from from such simple words. i was reminded of "the kite runner" in the opening lines, and was swept away with heartbreak in the stanzas that followed. i was startled by the realization that this was an elegy, and while not in the traditional couplet, your well chosen words still have so much impact. i had that feeling of a gasp in this realization, almost like wind and breath were the same, lifting that kite up toward the sky..and i do love the re-ascension at the end, i was completely enthralled by the sadness, the rhythm, and was so uplifted by your eloquent ending, and, in that bittersweet reward, tears. i was drawn in, and emotionally invested throughout. indeed, a brilliant work. you have my vote for POTD! |
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