A Pair of (Still) Blue Eyes – final draft

They have retained their lustre,
yet it is dark beneath closed lids.
They filter light to conjure colour
in dialogue with the brain,
resonant as Shakespearean actors.

Tired after years of looking
and seeing beyond words,
they require lenses,
windows on blurry landscapes
and distorted Giacometti figures.

They are prickling thistles,
friable pillows of delicate capillaries
and nerves tipped with light,
crystalline cameras until cataracts
gather like thunder clouds.

Where is their lustre now?

Kim M. Russell, 28th June 2019

Related image
Celestina, 1904 by Pablo Picasso – mage found on wikiart.org

On the final day of Arvon’s #5DayPoetryChallenge in conjunction with #NationalWritingDay, I took Jen Hadfield’s advice and instructions seriously – and I think I scared the cats! However, here is the final draft of my poem, which I have emailed to Friends@Arvon. 

25 thoughts on “A Pair of (Still) Blue Eyes – final draft”

  1. She is (Still) beautiful, I (Still) hear the fire popping in your poem and reflected in the portrait. Poignant poem, difficult to lose one’s vision, and but you tell us she accumulated a fund of blueness. I hope I can continue to see, to gather such accretions keeping my perspective younger than my degenerations would imply. Well written, full of lustre.

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    1. Thank you for reading and for your comments, Lona. I’ve submitted it to the competition associated with Arvon’s 5 day poetry challenge and have my fingers crossed. I should be back to writing every early soon – I’ve really missed it.

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  2. Striking, and it makes me think how there are conditions which are manageable today which brought certain disaster in the past. Diabetes (which I have) is controllable with injectable insulin. Cataracts (which I also have, but which are not yet serious enough that there need to do surgery) brought certain blindness. That at least in the United States (where I live) the government sees fit to deny treatments for such conditions to the underclasses is, in my opinion, a human rights abuse.

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    1. Thank you! I too have cataractsin one eye, which are not ripe enough for surgery, and macular degeneration in the other eye, as well as diabetes. We are fortune in this day and age to be monitored regularly and to have expert care.

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  3. Specially like this part Kim: crystalline cameras until cataracts
    gather like thunder clouds. Scary to lose the lustre of one’s eyes.

    Good luck with the competition. Enjoy your summer!!!!

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    1. Thank you, Grace! I’ve missed dVerse this past few weeks but my deadline is tomorrow. On Tuesday I should be free of paid work for another year and ready for summer! Have a great break and I’ll see you on the poetry trail in a couple of weeks.

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  6. “and nerves tipped with light, crystalline cameras until cataracts gather like thunder clouds,” … This is incredibly poignant, Kim! ❤️

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  8. I love this.. and I hope you will get it accepted, especially love the image of the cataract which nowadays can be resolved through surgery… I will have to have it one time as a result of my retina detachement surgery… but so far it’s basically holding up.

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  11. First off, so sorry for this extremely late response. Life!

    I like the way the poem circles back to the “lustre”. I especially like the way these lines emphasize how vulnerable our eyes really are….
    “friable pillows of delicate capillaries
    and nerves tipped with light”

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