Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Digging

Digging



Franklin N.C. was like any old pit
Natural beauty pocked with poverty
Lacklustering in gross inequity

We traipsed about in the staining red clay
Hoping to unearth some brilliant jewel,
Black dust or even a small flake of gold

Avoiding those loose roadside slews in town
Who’s salted pails sat pre-marked and rationed
With the lapidarists shards and discards

Digging in the crystal cold mountain air
We found something grander than pink sapphires
Something worth more than any carrot weight

That grit in our teeth and below the nails
While reminiscing with Norm the mine hand
We struck that rich vein to humanity

2 comments:

Anitra Freeman said...

Strong last lines really make a poem, and these moved me: "That grit in our teeth and below the nails / While reminiscing with Norm the mine hand / We struck that rich vein to humanity"

One of my writing teachers was death on "ing" words. I do think that if you changed all the other -ings to -eds that "lacklustering" would stand out more; that is an delightful, creative use of the "ing"! :D

Write On!

Cogswell said...

I think you are right. I will need to chew on it a bit though. Each of the lines is ten syllables and if I am not careful it could change the tense as well. Thanks again for your comments. I look forward to visiting your web pages. I see you have some interesting blogs.