On Thursday, I posted this small poem both here and on the PoetryEtc Listserve:

at the altar
an old woman
counting breaths

      

Now look at what the PoetryEtc poets did with it!

at the altar
an old woman
counting breaths

inspiration, expiration –
one purl, one plain

one pearl, one pain

one puff one flap
one left or to attain
one here or there
as it is everywhere

one pearl
one lost
since the markers of elegance moved on
since breaths at the altar are counted in black beads

one plain
decrease
here where the knee bends
where drawing breath might count for something

a pearl
of great price

telling beads
expiation, expectation
for decades
the varieties of precipitation
joyful
sorrowful
glorious

black pearl, lucrescent seed,
one joy, one pain, bittersweets the eye

falling from the needle
a curtain of white tears
pears at the point of ripeness

her slack mouth tells
forms the oh of them
black germ in pale flesh

nascent, oystered
many smiles, many sighs,
breaking open one

mortal shell,
come, o come, divinest shell
in my heart all thy secrets tell

      

Dancers:  Anny Ballardini; Joanna Boulter; Andrew Burke; Deborah L. Humphreys; Liz Kirby; and Rebecca Seiferle.