Threading the Needle

An Ars Poetica in tension and release

Art Deco created by the author using ChatGPT.

I was born with a needle
between thumb and forefinger,
threading syllables like silk —
a tensile grace pulling
the line taut, ready to snap.

Poetry is the art of tension:
a tightrope walk between
what I mean
and what I cannot mean,
each word a bead of sweat
trickling toward gravity.

The page is both canvas
and shroud, a place
to lay my ghosts flat
until they rise again
as something softer.

What I want is not beauty
but the ache before it blooms —
the silence between stanzas,
where breath holds
like a bird before flight.

To write is to stitch a wound
you do not want to heal —
to lean into the bruise
until its color sings.

© Ani Eldritch, 2024.