Hey everyone. I’m really excited to be part of this website, so I’m just going to jump right in with some stuff I’ve been thinking about lately. I’ll start things off with some poetry:

Skin Deep

after Mark Doty’s “A Green Crab’s Shell”

Like the hollowed space
Inside a used, red candle
–only softer, she revealed
Liquid beads that clung
To a new surface
Like water on wax paper

She, a former poem,
Lay prostrate
Pulling layers of used skin
Back like she was a pomegranate
Sliced on its side

I looked her in the eyes
And with a shaky hand
Reached out to slip a finger inside
The wound
Half expecting the warm resistance
Of some dying organ

When she smiled back
I knew it was because
The touch of my hand
Painfully tickled
The new skin beneath
–Like sand paper
Brushed against glass

I’ve only recently discovered Mark Doty’s poetry. His words create such lucid pictures. Usually this type of writing wallows too much in it’s own imagistic indulgences. Doty’s poetry uses imagery to work toward a greater concept. He instigates thought. This is what writing should do. I chose to imitate this poem in particular because I think he is exceptionally successful at using imagery to set the context of a greater meaning: Inward beauty. Consolation in knowing that we all hold great things within us. This poem can be read in its entirety at The Academy of American Poets website, here: http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15633

I could go on and on about Doty and his work, but I’ll save that for another entry, and potentially another imitation.