Published 6 Aug 2020
Poems for Contemplation: "The Slow Pleasures"
Poet Luci Shaw meditates over the joy of words in this offering from our Summer 2020 Poetry Series.
By Luci ShawA blog post Women Scholars and Professionals
This summer The Well is featuring a series of poems by women. Ruth Goring invites you to approach them curiously and meditatively
The Slow Pleasures
by Luci Shaw
So, the words come slowly, likethe minutes in an hour, or eventhe hours in a day — one by one.
In the cave of your mouth they tastelike oranges, green melons. Each offers its owntang, its own unhurried flush that glazes
your tongue. A delicious vowel flourishesthere, rounding, a flame struck by the match ofa fricative, a plosive, a sibilant — C, V, P, S, T, Z.
Each mouth sound knows this is not its end;that even after being swallowed,mated, subsumed, essences persist.
For now, let them re-echo in porcelain,crimson, onion, ivory, ovary, zither.Allow each the slow pleasure of being.
Luci Shaw was born in London, England in 1928. A poet and essayist, since 1986 she has been Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver. Author of over thirty-seven books of poetry and creative non-fiction, her writing has appeared in numerous literary and religious journals. In 2013 she received the 10th annual Denise Levertov Award for Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University. Her most recent collection, Eye of the Beholder, was released by Paraclete Press in 2018.