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.