Comments on: Ashes

By: Raven’s Wing Poetry Now Has a Channel on Gabcast! « Raven’s Wing Poetry

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 23:44:20 +0000

[...] published on this blog in December [...]

By: Read Write Poem Mini-Challenge Poem #1: Sycamore « Raven’s Wing Poetry

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 18:07:55 +0000

[...] seems less linear, that’s why. I also ended up taking my “ash golem” from my poem “Ashes” and bringing her into this poem. I hope you [...]

By: January 2010 Edition of Poetry Super Highwasy Worldwide Open Reading Online Now! « Raven’s Wing Poetry

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 04:03:19 +0000

[...] January 2010 Edition of Poetry Super Highway Worldwide Open Reading is online now! I read my poem “Ashes” on the show. Poets from places such as New Jersey, Flordia, and Oregon also read their pieces on [...]

By: Irene

Irene — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:07:07 +0000

The repetition functioned like a caesura before the fire of words leapt again and again and the turn came when the narrator draws a parallel with herself. O how we deal with demons..

By: karen

karen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:57:52 +0000

There is so much of this that is admirable, not the least the form and imagery. This complex connection of both Plath and the speaker’s situations and the speaker’s triumph is excellently wrought. Coincidentally, I wrote a sestina about Plath recently, but it certainly hasn’t the depth nor pain of this. You might want to take a look, anyway, as I used the phoenix as the central image. It’s at http://keepingsecrets-karen.blogspot.com/2009/10/sylvia-rising.html If the link won’t work, it’s in October in my archives – Sylvia Rising.

By: Francis Scudellari

Francis Scudellari — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:58:30 +0000

Very enjoyable indeed. It’s probably appropriate that I’m reading this at 3AM. There’s so much to this very powerful piece, the interweaving of Plath’s life and the speaker’s, the repeated images of flame and ash, and the refrain of “it’s easy…” though dealing with things that are not easy at all. Great stuff.

By: davidmoolten

davidmoolten — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:50:23 +0000

I think you do a spot on job with a tough subject. Plath focused so much and so well on herself already, and then so many others have since. But your perspective is different, because you draw a parallel other with the speaker in the poem, and while there is overlap of experience, there is also the benefit of one coming before the other, of perspective based on observation, and reflection, and ultimately there is a sense of resolution and even triumph, which Plath sadly never managed.

By: Tumblewords

Tumblewords — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:32:38 +0000

Surely an intense and energetic merging of the human foibles. Nicely done!

By: Neil Reid

Neil Reid — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:24:23 +0000

Such very robust words and images, and that can barely keep from flying off the page. Intense is understatement to say. And the repetition does work to keep a single thread though out the poem. Thank you Nicole for your labor here.

By: Paul Oakley

Paul Oakley — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 20:59:40 +0000

I love this poem, Nicole. Very strong, unrelenting in its depiction of genius and strength mixed terminally with flaw and weakness.

Right from the first stanza you captured me with:

a burning half-morning light,
so faint that candles cannot even
make love with it lest they disturb the
shadow of amber that it drops onto the wall.

Your use of wonderful words like “roborant” is a pleasure to the reading eye. Your depiction of ravenous flame is powerful:

so wanton and blood-tooth hungry that it
forgets wood and wick and burns
you instead for fuel.

And the frighteningly beautiful image of molding what is left into an ash golem took my breath away.

Magnificent work and a beautiful encomium to Plath, Nicole.