05-03-2013, 04:59 PM
(03-13-2013, 11:44 PM)cidermaid Wrote: Edit 2A very nice dirge, full of lament and horror yet never sick or mean-spirited. All critique is, of course, JMHO. Thank you for the read
Dead before death.
Captured early by time decomposing. Is time decomposing, or her?
With morbid stubbornness, her stagnant life
oozes in incremental drips of putrid atrophy. Excellent line. Perhaps an overkill of adjectives in it and the previous line, but I like the semantic field of rot so much that I won't pick at it.
Every mortal, fatally flawed action; Instead of a semi-colon could a dash go here, followed by one after "wind blown" (which should have its own dash), as the following line is a parenthesis. Speaking of which, maybe "wind blown" could be brought up a line?
simple things, finger tips teasing her hair, cares Should "finger tips" be one word?
wind blown, are rebuffed and woodenly resisted.
She crystallised; entombed within,
embalmed in over salted brine, in which nothing Should be a dash between "over salted".
can grow or thrive. Laid out in firm resolution
awaiting death, embracing every rigor mortised
reduction. Until life is brought down to the lowest, "Rigor mortised reduction" is an excellent phrase.
gravest spec of dust. Six feet of cold empty excavation. Everything from "until" to "dust" is fabulous.
She wears her death well,
a cherished shroud upon her breast,
An ill borne blossom out of season, she refuses to thrive. Should be a dash between "ill borne".
A fruitlet that falls for no reason.
She died too young. Though I like the contrasting of densely poetic lines with this straightforward close, I think the poem would be stronger if it ended on the "fruitlet" line, which is fantastic.
"We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges." - Gene Wolfe

