Two more nights and 2012 is upon us. As I was sifting through Joel M. Toledo’s poetry, our Featured Poet in GatheringBooks for November and December, I was struck by this title: The New Hollow as taken from his book The Long Lost Startle. I felt that it would be a fitting contribution to Poetry Friday (which is hosted this week by Julie Larios from The Drift Record) – and as a way for us to usher in 2012 with opening doors, silences in conch shells, and the splitting of stones asking one and all to come in, come in, and perhaps, rest. Have a quiet and peaceful New Year everyone.
The shadows scraping the stone as the light sears into the interior. Or how the dips and hollows creasing the rock’s face are slowly vanishing. You open the door wider and all that is to be feared in the world has receded, pointed things, sharp corners rounded safe as if in the night someone had come and chiseled out all that may cause further bleeding in the room.
Or maybe it’s simply because it is a new morning and the visitors have arrived, the blanket stretched out and folded neatly on the bed. Outside, the overhead stars are diminished, casting unimportant glimmer, and there is no one waiting in the old house. I know; you are more easily astonished by vast, joyful spaces
like when you press an ear against a conch shell or dip your fingers into a strange jar. That kind of thing. So much air in there, too many whisperings as to why you keep holding out your hand to the sky and to the treetops in between, leaves and the violent stirring. Yet these things do not matter as much
as that rising sense of displacement, as if where you are is not enough, as if there in the very center of a split rock, you will find a gentler heart, an almost throbbing heart, the sun hitting it just right and you are most welcome to listen.
Some say when you open the stone you just get more stone. Someone else spoke of a passing through, an emptying, a new hollow. There are many roundish holes in the body, insisting on a profound generosity. But ah, how good it is to just hold the fresh hand and to know what once was bleeding abundantly, for you, is now asking you to come in.
Gathering Books 
Your choice of this for the new year is so beautiful, Myra. It offers such a rush of joy for freshness from the beginning “You open the door wider and all that is to be feared in the world has receded” to the end “how good it is to just hold the fresh hand”. Thank you for starting us off so well! Happy New Year to you & your family!
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Hi Linda! This is also one of my favorite poems of Joel’s. I’m very glad that you enjoyed it. 🙂 I like the emptying of one’s self, such that a hollow is created – making space/room for more. 🙂
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Perfect timing! Sir Joel was my Humanities professor, but I wasn’t a very good student, haha 🙂
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Hi Vera, Fats was also a student of Joel onceuponatime. 🙂
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“pointed things, sharp corners rounded safe” — We can hope, and that is a gift to be cherished.
Best wishes, Myra, for a Happy and Peaceful Year ahead.
Maria
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Best wishes too for the New Year, dearest Maria. 🙂 We miss you for Poetry Friday!
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What a beautiful poem, Myra. I love these lines:
“I know; you are more easily/ astonished by vast, joyful spaces/ like when you press an ear against/ a conch shell or dip your fingers into/ a strange jar.”
I hope your new year is full of those “vast, joyful spaces.”
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What a lovely wish Doraine. I am hoping the same for you as well. 🙂
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Lovely, lovely poem – I read it over and over again, and found something new (and profound) every time!
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Hi Tara, I’m glad that you loved it. 🙂 Happy New Year once again!
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A lovely choice, Myra, and I’m struck by the cover of Joel’s book and how perfect it would be as a children’s book cover, title and all. May the new year be full of the sun hitting the center of the split rock just right, and may we stop and listen.
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Hi Heidi, that was a beautiful wish. Amen to that. 🙂
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Erosion vs. smashing. You get to the heart of it either way, it’s just that the cost is different in each situation.
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Hi Mary Lee, very astute observation. And which one you use largely depends on where you are at which point in your life. Happy New Year!
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