It's Poetry Monday, and this week's topic is LACE.
Join Delores, Mother Owl, and me as we weave our poetic magic on this topic. I'm hoping Diane will be back in Blogland with her poetry soon; she is sorely missed. When life slows down a bit, I'm sure she will make an appearance.
We have some other regular contributors in the comments as well. If you want to officially join up with the poetry challenge, let me know and I'll put the link to your blog in this preamble. That way people don't need to sift through the comments to find you.
If you just want to contribute now and then when you have time or energy or a lightning bolt of inspiration (yee-haw! I love those), feel free to leave your poem (or a link to your blog) in the comments.
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Well, there were no lightning bolts of inspiration for me this week, but here's my poem anyway.
(I have GOT to start thinking about the poems I've already written before I make a suggestion for a topic! . . . Of course, picking a topic out of the blue does put me at the same disadvantage as everyone else, so maybe it's more fair - ha ha)
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Nature's Wintry Lace
I do not know the science
That causes ice to freeze
So thinly, so delicately
Rising as if by magic
From the damp winter earth
I only know
My eye
Sees lace
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Taken just before dusk, February, 2018, looking directly down at some ice on the ground.You can see the edge of the thicker ice about halfway down the frame, and below that the new ice crystals forming from the moisture in the ground. The "lacy" part in the bottom half of the frame was extremely thin and fragile and most of it was not actually touching the ground but was suspended above it. |
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I've been waiting for over a year to use that photo!
Have a good week, everyone.
When I read the topic I immediately thought of posting a link to a picture of a lace loom that I saw recently, as I found it fascinating: a group of handles with spools of (thread? string? yarn? what do they make lace out of, anyway?) all pulled over the top of this barrel-like device with the pattern on it, so the individual strings could be sort of braided into the pattern and the barrel could roll back to expose the rest of the pattern as it was needed.
ReplyDeleteI used to be a machinist, so I find stuff like that terribly interesting.
But I couldn't find the dang picture, and nothing that came up in a Google image search for lace loom looked even remotely like the picture that had grabbed my attention a couple of weeks ago, so instead, here are some Bruce Cockburn lyrics that mention lace, from a song called "Lovers in a Dangerous Time":
"These fragile bodies of touch and taste
This vibrant skin, this hair like lace
Spirits open to the thrust of grace
Never a breath you can afford to waste
When you're lovers in a dangerous time"
Bruce is a Canadian and a virtuoso guitar player.
I like your poem. It doesn't freeze much around here, so I rarely see such wonders outside of pictures, but I seem to remember the ice crystals making beautiful patterns on the windows at Trevor's house up by lake Tahoe.
-Doug in Oakland
Ice crystals on windows - yes! They are indeed beautiful.
DeleteI know that song and singer - but I didn't know all the words. I'll have to go listen to it again.
I saw some photos of lace-making on Pixabay when I searched for "lace" - it looks very complicated. I believe we'd use the term thread for what's on the spools. I don't think the pictures I saw had the pattern on the base, though. Now that is intriguing!
I've also seen lace being made resting on a bolster or cushion. Honiton is a small town just a few miles from us which was famous for making lace, not so much now though.
DeleteIce on the ground is something I have never seen here in this warm country, but I have seen icy lace on the insides of freezer containers when I've put them in the freezer without properly cooling off. I love that picture of real lace, it looks like part of a wedding dress.
ReplyDeleteI believe that lace was indeed part of a wedding dress or veil, River. I couldn't find a picture I liked at my usual free source (Pixabay) so I ended up finding a picture of lace material for sale on Amazon, and bridal sewing was the suggested use for it. Good eye!
DeleteYes, there's usually some nice lacy frost in freezer containers from the condensation, you're right!
DEFINITELY lace in ice.
ReplyDeleteLace is a topic which tugs on my heart strings. My mother's lace was truly lovely.
Ephemeral and fragile,
Lace winds its tendrils deep into my heart strings
(like every cat I have ever known).
When those fragile threads break
A piece of me dies too.
I LOVE your poem, EC. Thank you for that.
DeleteI think lace-making would be quite complicated. Did you ever watch your mother make it? How wonderful that you have some of her work.
Aw, EC, that is so true. They break our hearts, but we can't help going back for more.
DeleteIce is extra fascinating to we who don't experience it.
ReplyDeleteJust goes to show there are pros and cons to most everything, right? :) Here, ice is more generally something we dread as it affects our ability to get around on the roads, and can lead to falls on the sidewalk or on our steps!
DeleteYes! I aso always see ice forming as lace. Nice poem, and I'm happy you saved this photo for today.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mother Owl! I'll be stopping by your blog shortly to see what you have written this week.
DeleteBeautiful.
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
Thanks for reading, Briony.
DeleteLACY WORE LACE
ReplyDeleteLacy wore lace
To hide her face
On her wedding day
At Botany Bay
And lacewings danced on the water
As I gave away my daughter
And she lifted the delicate lace
That had hidden her beautiful face
And whispered "I do"
To a red kangaroo
Who, can you believe,
Was called Steve!
Well, that took a turn! lol
DeleteThanks for contributing, YP. I have missed your poems.
That poem just flows and takes us by surprise. Great.
DeleteHeeheehee! Quite a juxtaposition there!
DeleteIt's good to have the brain stressed to go to another level. Poems come about when something is seen or thought about and we have an idea. when you're given a topic well OH BOY!
ReplyDeleteYes, it seems to be an exercise of a totally different kind! :)
DeleteI doubt I could keep track of a photo for a week, let alone a year. It is lovely.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joanne. I'm surprised I could find that, actually - lol
DeleteWhen I think of lace, I think of the doilies and cloths my grandmother had on the tables in her house. It is interesting how a word can conjure up different images for people
ReplyDeleteYes, isn't it? We had those doilies when I was growing up - my mother crocheted them. It was intricate work.
DeleteHow funny we both chose to winter lace to write about. This is lovely Jenny, both the words and the photo.
ReplyDelete"Only in Canada, eh?" lol We are obsessed with snow and ice, ha ha
DeleteHow cool! (Literally, as it turns out.) I love your poem and your photo. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Diane - I suppose the science behind this is just the same as any other ice, but it looked like magic, forming above the ground rather than on it!
DeleteOh yes, I watched. In awe.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great memory that would be - lucky you. I would love to see it being done.
DeleteNice, Jenny...I don't remember the last time I saw winter lace...
ReplyDeleteNo, I expect there isn't much of it in Florida! Thanks, e.
DeleteWinter's icy lace is beautiful and very complex.
ReplyDeleteMy lacy contribution is here.
Yes, indeed.
DeleteAnd I've been over to read your poem - well done!
Winter ice is so delicate and beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is.
DeleteAnd dangerous, in a lot of cases :)
hi dearest Jenny!
ReplyDeletei hope you feeling better now ,i was constantly thinking about you because right after writing you comment on your previous post i start sneezing (can you believe it)
and since then am caught by flu which is not letting me thing properly
i so loved your poem and for me either when it comes to think about LACE
all that comes in my mind is white flowering rows of plum trees beneath the hills front of my native home which always looked like a beautiful LACE to me
hugs!
Flowering trees DO look like beautiful lace, don't they? I'm so sorry you're sick. I'm still developing new symptoms but a think in a day or two I'll be starting to feel better. I'm glad I didn't give you my germs, though - that's a benefit of socializing on the internet, you don't have to worry about giving or getting germs :) Take care of yourself! Hugs :)
DeleteNice people consider my thinking 'alternative'.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't tied
My own shoelace
And then I fell
Flat on my face
I didn't win
Or even place
That, or any other race
Aha - the "other" kind of lace! Well done :)
DeleteThat is so true! I never thought of it like that but now that I see little ice pellets coming down outside my window (yes, we have freezing rain today...bleh!), it does look like patters of ice where it lands. Not something I want around this time of year, but it's quite beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWe had snow last night and are forecast to get more tonight, so I can sympathize with you, Martha :)
Delete