Vanitas

[71degrees]

You do a good job painting a picture with words.
Does free verse require punctuation? comas, semicolons; no periods. I'm not sure what the guidelines are.

If there are guidelines, or as you say "requirements" for free verse poetry, I would be surprised. Whatever trips my trigger is how I live my life on paper.

Thanks for asking.

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I swear I could make a living
thing out of my teacup
if she would sit still
and really listen to me

This stanza just grabs my attention. After the placid still-life scene, this is like a neon sign. May I inquire what the inspiration was for this? I can only mentally place a living teacup with Beauty and the Beast.

The last two lines, "if she would sit still and really listen to me", that's fascinating. The feminine connotation, the idea of someone so lonely that a thought like this would even pop up, that 'only my cat and my tea cup ever listens to me, and if only old grandfather clock would stop talking once in a while'. I see a Judaic-Christian theme in making a living thing from clay. I can even feel the protaganist, with shaky hands, spilling droplets of tea despite a backsplash of peace. It's original, striking, ambiguous, and beautiful.

Your comments are wonderful and I'm glad the poem drove you to ask such questions. I only used the "tea cup" image b/c I happened to be drinking tea at the time I was studying up on Vanitas art and beginning to form my thoughts for the poem. your own thoughts about a clock or your cat hold water as well. I love the Grandfather image w/the clock. Always have.

I am Catholic and anyone who says their Religious background doesn't influence how they see things is foolish. One can deny it. One can ignore it. One can change it. But it remains a piece of our consciousness. If anything, the theme of the poem might be "purpose"....hence the tea cup image. I confess the idea came about b/c I was trying to make a point about something to my wife. She wasn't listening to me at all. I felt like the tea cup I was holding in my hand. Just a piece of artwork. Something like that.

Thanks. Comments like yours are way more beneficial than carping about punctuation and the like. I appreciate it very much.