A share - Wedding: Alice Oswald

[Achebe]

Reading this is like watching Usain Bolt run...

Wedding (1996) - Alice Oswald

From time to time our love is like a sail
and when the sail begins to alternate
from tack to tack, it’s like a swallowtail
and when the swallow flies it’s like a coat;
and if the coat is yours, it has a tear
like a wide mouth and when the mouth begins
to draw the wind, it’s like a trumpeter
and when the trumpet blows, it blows like millions…
and this, my love, when millions come and go
beyond the need of us, is like a trick;
and when the trick begins, it’s like a toe
tip-toeing on a rope, which is like luck;
and when the luck begins, it’s like a wedding,
which is like love, which is like everything.

http://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/wedding/

[CRNDLSM]

I think this was meant to be read with a 30 second pause between each line to buy time to forget youre reading the same words over and over again. So I'll go ahead and say it's like watching the slowest runner in the world....

[ellajam]

Lovely read

[CRNDLSM]

I like this better thinking of it as an extended meta-simile, connecting the smallest thing to the largest although this requires quite a bit lateral thinking, or longitudinal, but yes running is a great comparison

[RiverNotch]

i feel like i've read this before.....
wait, i have. it's this same thread, i think.
lol

to me, it doesn't feel like running, its rhythm is too mellow -- i find trochaic far faster. instead, it's like peering into a kaleidoscope, or maybe a microscope, but instead of just a couple of minutes you're doing your thesis or whatever and when you remove your eyes from the piece everything you see is made small, or surrounded by a big black field. it would probably be a more comfortable experience if i read this when i was actually running, or at least moving, so the beauty of it all would be calmed by bumps or engine-rumbles every end of the line -- but in the quiet of my room before, or in the quiet of the library now, i think my astigmatism grew twenty grades, reading this piece. still, swell.