Monday, August 1, 2011

Hammer in hand

Jeff and I saw Terrence Malick*s The Tree of Life last night.  We loved it.  It will require a lot of processing, looking at it from one angle, then another, then another.  Some reviewers have referred to it as a poem or a prayer... not exactly what most people go to movies for.  Job and Ecclesiastes figure big in it.  I note the beginnings of compassion in an interaction between two dinosaurs.  I have no idea how I would write a review of the movie.  It is not a movie to be viewed through a spyglass.  I have found the kaleidoscope my brother gave me.  I may need a new marble.


With a hammer in hand
They say
Everything looks like a nail.

In front of me:
An array of tools
I have learned to use.
In front of me:
Gifts and talents enough
For a jewelry box
Laid out neatly
on velvet trays.
The bottom drawer
Contains the necklaces
That need to be
Unknotted
Before they can be worn.

In front of me:
Many memories ordered,
So many strewn
In my mind,
The bottom drawer full
Of memories
That still need to be
Unknotted,
Before being picked up
Applied.

A hammer in hand
Everything is a nail.

Years ago my brother gave me
A kaleidoscope,
Different marbles
To look through.
Sometimes  I used it
As a spyglass.

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