Joy
A Chiasm in Seven
I sat beside the well the drought had drained as dry as me.
At her voice I swung around to see that face
long shrouded in the haze of far
away and missed years now here!
Her eyes alive with light,
sparking the fuse of
joy
dancing up
the dark heart corridors
decade shuttered and now shaking
apart, the dust in swirl, all those kisses
hand-flung to the high clouds, light as angel songs,
falling back to earth like rain upon this thirsty boy.
A Chiasm in Seven refers to a poem of 13 lines in chiastic structure, where the seventh line is the very center of the poem and holds the key word around which the poem pivots. The six lines that precede the center descend toward the center in decreasing stresses per line (the first and furthest out line has seven stresses, the second line has six stresses, and so on, down to the center line which has one stress). The final six lines move away from the center in increasing stresses (until the last line again has seven stresses just like the first line). All of the lines opposite of each other (as if in a mirror) are paired, both in the number of stresses, and also in content and language. The pairings might reinforce a similar idea or image, present an opposite or contrasting idea or image, contain words that rhyme or share some kind of pattern. For fun, I have listed the paired lines below the audio recording so you can easily examine their relatedness. The poem presents an occasion of joy—a reunion of lovers after a long absence. By presenting this experience of joy in chiasm, I hope that the reader/listener will be drawn down into the poem, collide with the joy at the center, and rise out of the poem with some sense of its triumph.
LINE PAIRINGS
7A: I sat beside the well the drought had drained as dry as me.
7B: falling back to earth like rain upon this thirsty boy.
6A: At her voice I swung around to see that face
6B: hand-flung to the high clouds, light as angel songs,
5A: long shrouded in the haze of far
5B: apart, the dust in swirl, all the kisses
4A: away and missed years now here!
4B: decade shuttered and now shaking
3A: Her eyes alive with light,
3B: the dark heart corridors
2A: sparking the fuse of
2B: dancing up
Center: joy