PICKINGS

Poetry from NHI publications

COMPLEXITY
Out-takes 1 My father was a sailor. 2 Nearly fifty years between us. 3 Images of his wandering life suspended like ornaments. 4 Living room is green: objects just as carefully ordered as before. 5 Perhaps a generation had been lost, some intermediate father, who would throw a ball, be at that median point, a balance. 6 I would have told him that love can keep the bonds of trust intact despite the changes, but that would have violated his sense of what must be shown more than said. 7 My father was a sailor. 8 In time the distance that had grown between us at least became clearer: compounded of two stubborn wills and his knowledge that his son, his only son, was better at books than with the tools on the wall. 9 The ‘stuff’ of life, the complexity of father and son, the promise left from a long walk on the beach, talking about the ambiguities inherent in a sense of self. 10 In grief there are always temptations. 11 Love as the hope of some mutual resolution. Loss as the absolute removal of even the uncertainty of its fulfillment. 12 My father was a sailor.
JOHN ELSBERG

COMPLEXITY

Out-takes

1

My father was a sailor.

2

Nearly fifty years between us.

3

Images of his wandering life
suspended like ornaments.

4

Living room is green:
objects just as carefully ordered
as before.

5

Perhaps a generation
had been lost, some intermediate
father, who would throw a ball,
be at that median point,
a balance.

6

I would have told him
that love can keep the bonds
of trust intact despite
the changes, but that
would have violated his sense
of what must be shown more than said.

7

My father was a sailor.

8

In time the distance
that had grown between us
at least became clearer: compounded
of two stubborn wills
and his knowledge that his son,
his only son, was better
at books than with the tools on the wall.

9

The ‘stuff’ of life,
the complexity of father and son,
the promise left
from a long walk on the beach,
talking about the ambiguities inherent
in a sense of self.

10

In grief there are always temptations.

11

Love as the hope
of some mutual resolution.
Loss as the absolute
removal of even the uncertainty
of its fulfillment.

12

My father was a sailor.

JOHN ELSBERG

from
Sailor
ISBN 0 903610 23 X

Next poem
Previous poem

Pickings
NHI home page
Books
Magazines

email the author
read a review of a book by David Check & John Elsberg
read another poem by John Elsberg.

Web design by Gerald England
This page last updated: 19th April 2007.