Water Poems: Reflections

by Liminality

Published December 12, 2021

In Poetry (2020)

Text:

mirror images

in

repetition

become

lily pads

school receipts

mint ice cream

love poems

turn forest to

the sage age

hospital curtains

-

hospital curtains

the sage age

to forest turn

poems love

mint ice cream

school receipts

lily pads

become

repetition

in

mirror images

Comments & reviews · 4
User avatar
Plume
Review
Plume wrote a review Review · Dec 17, 2021

Hey there! Plume here, with a review!

Ooh, what a lovely poem!! I loved the boomerang effect of reversing the order of the lines; it also played into the reflections aspect of it as well. It was so simplistic yet so effective, and I'm left with the feeling that there's more to this poem than what meets the eye. I'm not sure I'm poetically literate enough to interpret it, but it truly was a really gorgeous poem. Nice work!!

I think your green imagery in this was really strong. I loved the combo of mint ice cream and lily pads along with your mentions of the forest and sage. It conjured up a more mellow sense of green, and one that felt calming and nostalgic. To me, this poem seems to be about memories that keep resurfacing, some that have more meaning than others. Hospital curtains obviously sound important, but the other stuff, like the ice cream, are more trivial. Combined with the reflections/mirror/water, it gives it that enigmatic je ne sais quoi that tiny memories have.

The visual aspect of your poem was also amazing; I loved how it kind of looked like a graph. It was quite soothing to look at, so nice job on your color choices! It was definitely reminiscent of water. I did think that if it didn't have the plain text without any fancy formatting below it, I probably wouldn't be as sure where how the poem was supposed to read; I probably would have just gone to the end of the second part, thinking it was the beginning. But besides that, I think it was a very creative way to incorporate even further that feeling of reflecting.

Overall: nice work!! I really enjoyed this poem, and I hope to read the other two Water Poems you have. I'm wondering: are they related in any way, or are they all separate, just joined by the theme of water? Anyways. Once again, nice work!! I hope to read the other poems soon! Until next time!!

Thanks for the review, Plume! I enjoyed reading your interpretation about memories. I'd say the poems are just joined by the theme of water - I didn't really think of them as being related in terms of meaning. c:Thanks again!

User avatar
silented1
Comment
silented1 commented Comment · Dec 16, 2021

The same things can feel like torn all in itself.

User avatar
fleuralplants
Comment
fleuralplants commented Comment · Dec 15, 2021

I absolutely love the presentation of this.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. c:

User avatar
Mooilky
Review
Mooilky wrote a review Review · Dec 14, 2021

Hello, I am leaving a review.

The use of the graph for this poem adds an interesting level to reading.
Though, I appreciate that the text is also available in a more traditional format as well.

Mirror images and hospital curtains are both adjacent to and opposite each other with school receipts in the middle. In the graph, mint ice cream takes more of the middle.

I like the juxtaposition of mirror images and hospital curtains (one that reflects and one that obscures).

"love poems

turn forest to"

"to forest turn

poems love"

I notice that these lines are the only ones where the word order is switched in the reflection.
Most likely, this is because the other lines are a single word or an idea that, though there is a space, a specific object is being mentioned.

This was an interesting read. Thank you for sharing your art!

Thanks for the review, Mooilky! You're right about the lines where the word order gets switched around a bit - unfortunately this was written a while ago and I can't quite remember what I meant by that. ^^' I'm just curious - did you have an interpretation of what this poem meant? Like a story that was unfolding, or maybe a mood or feeling?

Thanks again!

Hello Liminality, if I had to pick an interpretation of what this poem means, I think I would conclude that it tells the story of a student going through a rough patch and attempting to use math to explain why. These lines reflect each other but don't intersect so in the end a conclusion isn't reached. But perhaps this exploration helped the student learn something about themself or brought a sense of catharsis. Thanks.

Ah, that's interesting! Thanks so much for that response :D



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— Brené Brown