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blue porcelain bowl

blue porcelain bowl

 

I am the blue porcelain bowl

got in China

with a chip inside the

rim of my bottom ring

 

only I know it's there

 

there was a defect

in the firing when I was

made -- left a fissure

so small it went unnoticed

 

lady from San Francisco

who bought me in Guangdong

and brought me home

never noticed invisible crack

under me

 

on trans-Pacific voyage

a little piece fell off

packing box never told

about the sliver of blue

 

unpacking in townhouse

by the Bay I was set on a table --

I am filled with rose petals

from time to time

 

and I am content

 

there is no beauty without

a flaw.

 

vcp

 

 

— Victorclaude, Jul 18, 2010

About This Poem

About the Author

Country/Region: USA

Favorite Poets: Wallace Stevens, D. H. Lawrence, Charles Bukowski, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Percy Bysshe Shelley, T. S. Eliot, E. E. Cummings, Emily Dickinson, William Butler Yeats, Pablo Neruda, Joni Mitchell, William Shakespeare, Basho, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kelly Marie Hayner, Susan Wydville. D. Phillip Caron, Elizabeth Bishop.

More from this author

Critiques

Kailashana

Kailashana

15 years 10 months ago

Hmmmmm.So very beautiful,

Hmmmmm. So very beautiful, Victor. We're all a bit chipped, eh? Can you find another word other than *got* it mars the poem. lol. Light and love, Anna "There is a kind of mysticism to writing." ~ Irvine Welsh
Victorclaude

Victorclaude

15 years 10 months ago

Anna, ‘… got …’

Anna, '. . . got . . .' stays as written. I don't think it inflicts the poem with a mar at all, indeed I used quite on purpose. The use of the word 'got' in this poem, at least to me, does nothing but add to the poem's syntactical whole. The word 'got' is not ungrammatical, therefore it stays as is. Thanks, Victor
Kailashana

Kailashana

15 years 10 months ago

I *got* your point

I *got* your point Victor...trust me, no matter how jarring and marring *got* is. Lol. ~A "There is a kind of mysticism to writing." ~ Irvine Welsh
M

magics02

15 years 10 months ago

What a piece of work here Victor

Very profound write of yours again I see and enjoyed it and yes we all carry that little chipped piece around with us. Just want to tell you I really like your style here. I just had to ask as I read this a second time was the porcelain bowl you?? From what I got of the piece it read to me like you were adopted maybe. Please correct my thinking if I am not on spot here. Or is it the blue bowl that you got in China. I am curious and I love how you did this one Victor. Love Mona Magics
M

magics02

15 years 10 months ago

Thank you

As I gather my thoughts back to my original thinking after the read I got it now, the chip of the bowl and what it represented in your piece here. All in all I am still in awe of it and liked it very much. Thank you for being so kind to answer my curiousities. And I forgot to say your picture reminds me of a famous actor and I have still not found that name in my head just yet. It will come and I shall let you know who I think you look like. Peace out to you nice work Love Mona Magics xoxox
Seren

Seren

15 years 10 months ago

Dearest V

I have to agree with A~ that 'got' mars a wonderful poem how about acquired made discovered anything but got lol hahah big smile you can scold me later love and hugs JayCee (“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson quote)