A Long Tale/Tail

I remember one time having had trouble seeing where I'd like to begin and end the lines of one of my poems. When writing free-verse, the arrangement of each line influences the overall feel and meaning of a piece, just as much as the sounds and individual word meanings do. While attempting to write this poem in the traditional left-to-right format, I just couldn't find an arrangement that conveyed the meaning just right. Then I remembered something I saw in the story Alice In Wonderland /Through The Looking Glass. In the story, the Mouse tells Alice its long, sad tale... As Alice listens, she visualizes the tale in the shape of the Mouse's actual physical tail. The book shows the mouse's tale printed from the top of the page to the bottom -- starting out slightly wider at the top, then simultaneously curving and tapering as it goes down the page -- finally coming to a point at the end of the tale/tail. I decided to try a variation of that format -- just a simple vertical arrangement -- and was happy with the result.

This, my Alice In Wonderland-influenced poem, was inspired by a very young, very artistically talented man I worked with at a local printing press. He sketched breathtakingly beautiful pictures laced with sad themes -- so vivid they brought tears to my eyes. He told me the sketches were a sort of therapy to help him mend his heart, which had recently been broken by his golden-haired girl friend.


THE CURING WELL
written in January 1999

If
I
could
learn
to
see
in
fine
detail
the
way
you
do
Like
you,
I'd
use
my
pens
as
keys
to
set
free
the
beautiful
bittersweet
pictures
imprisoned
in
me.

In
the
meantime,
I
draw
them
with
salt
water
which
streams
from
my
eyes
and
I
feel
well
again.