Second Place Winner, December 2003 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, December 2003

VESSEL PONDERS A CAREER CHANGE
      Mitchell Metz
      (Writer’s Block)

I
am
form
FORM
form
for
m.

It doesn’t exactly build a resume,
but it’s what I do. Am. Same
thing &

that’s the beauty of it,
the tragedy.

Fluids?
          My bread & butter.
                    They take my shape.

The good ones see-
p into my pores, de-
spite kiln and glaze.

Impermeability is potter’s myth.
No vessel worth its volume
doesn’t absorb content.

Oh the substances I’ve hosted!
          But that’s another matter.
                    The issue at hand:

it’s been a millenium
and I’m tired; it’s time
to move on.

I said move.
Sometimes
I like to kid around.

E
vapor
ation

has been an e
ffective tool
over the years.

But a guy finally gets rid
of his insides, and finds e

mpty
doesn’t change a thing.
He’s still a vessel, se

e? And the problem with pour-
ing is it requires an agent. I mean
- ing is not part of my idiom. Still,

it’s great fun
          to play decanter
                    now and then. Once

I found myself under a fau-
cet for days and fashioned
it some kind of identity

change involving runnething over.
It’s rather embarrassing in retro-
spect. Em-

bar
ass
ing!

So.
A good shatter
          might be in order.
                    Breakage is beautiful.
Sometimes I dream I’m a frag-

(again the agent issue:
where’s a damn toddler
when you need her?)

-ment. Or
some thrown
& fired Buddha.

Maybe if I sit here
and concentrate not
concentrate, and let go --

no form,
          content,
                    function,
                              agency --

I can become
an artifact.

Judge Wayne Miller’s comment: “This dramatic monologue in the voice of ‘Form’ plays around with its own formal choices, but more strikingly, it investigates conceptually the controlling power of form—as both container of thought and, more importantly, shaper of thought. Throughout, it does so in a successfully playful way. Take, for example, Form’s introduction—‘I / am / form / FORM / form / for / m’—which raises the question: who is this ‘m’embedded in the poem’s playful (formal) linebreaks, to whom the poem is addressed? Some others: I love the spin on the phrase ‘worth its salt’ (or other clichés of worth) in ‘No vessel worth its volume / doesn’t absorb content’; perhaps my favorite is ‘I found myself under a fau- / cet for days and fashioned / it some kind of identity // change involving runnething over.’ That’s just funny, and yet also shows how form can frame questions of identity both inside and outside of a work of art. And though the rhythmic setup of the ending seems a little over-determined for my taste, I love how the speaker addresses the way form continues to last after content fades into the void beyond recorded history. This is when form without content becomes ‘artifact’—becomes mystery.”