Creative Caffeine: The Most Private Thing/Skin

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Most Private Thing/Skin - Elizabeth Weld Nolan

This private thing
lives in public
wrapping blood
and liver,
heart and bone
in fragile armor
to guard us.
Sensing enemies,
it hurls armies
against invasion.
We hardly know
our resident warrior.

It transmits bulletins
by the second:
soft chair, rough floor,
smooth shirt, harsh seam,
cold foot, warm hugs,
cream on sores,
rash from leaf,
forefinger smoothing
quivering bird wing,
thorn alert. This messenger,
this Hermes, speaks
privately until death.

1 comment:

Creative CaffeineMay 6, 2011 at 3:04 PM
I always love your poetry. The second stanza of this one is particularly good - a totally original and beautiful meditation on skin.
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What is Creative Caffeine?

The Blend: The idea behind Creative Caffeine is a blend of two writing principles. First, that the more you write, the better you write. And second, that there’s a creative alchemy that comes from free-writing first thing in the morning.

The Brew: Here’s how it works. Every weekday morning, the Creative Caffeine barista will email you a writing prompt - something that will act like a jolt of caffeine for your writing brain. Using this prompt, you will free write for 10 minutes. Ideally, you’ll do this before you shower, get dressed, feed the dog and the kids – in other words, before your internal judge wakes up. When the 10 minutes are over, you’ll email that morning’s work to your Creative Caffeine weekly writing partners, as well as to the barista.

Your weekly writing partners will read the morning’s work, and highlight the passages they like, the ideas they think should be developed into longer pieces. And you’ll do the same for them.

At the end of the week, the barista will choose her fave from each Caffeinator's work for the week and post it on the Creative Caffeine blog site. Everybody* will read your writing and marvel.

(*Links to the Creative Caffeine blog site appear on multiple websites.)

Placing your order: You can join Creative Caffeine any Monday morning. The cost is $100 for a four-week commitment (20 writing days). To join click here.

The Dark Roast Option – For those who are serious about their jolt: When you register, just send the Creative Caffeine barista an extra check for $100. If you write every one of the 20 days, you’ll get your check back. Every day you miss, will cost you $5 – the equivalent of a grande latte.

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Friday, May 6, 2011

The Most Private Thing/Skin - Elizabeth Weld Nolan

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