Close to the end now – for both the reflections and for the Christmas rush. So I think out of sympathy for all of those run ragged from Christmas shopping, here a nice short reflection with plenty of imagery – it’s Marian Spires on her poem ‘mnemonic of love’.
Beau Hillier | Editor, page seventeen
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A mnemonic is a device to assist memory. What do we know of love? How do we recall it once it as gone? This poem acts as a list of encounters that may or may not be opportunities for finding love. It is an act of remembering, of trying to make sense of these experiences. The form of the poem is chosen to reflect these fragmented memories with gaps, silences and plenty of white space. While there is an acceptance of the inevitability of loss in this piece, there still remains a yearning for connection, beyond the physical, through language.
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Marian Spires (www.marianspires.com) is a poet, writer and teacher exploring the internal landscapes of personal and cultural myths with concrete language. She has performed her poetry on radio, television, at festivals and featured at poetry events. Her verse novella, Knowing Vincent (2010, Picaro Press), re-imagines Vincent van Gogh through the perspective of the women in his life.