The whittler



I marveled how he whittled
from chunks of driftwood
figurines so life-like
I half-expected them
to speak their gratitude,
say how glad they were
to be alive and never
drift aimlessly again

You could make a fortune
I told the whittler
people would line up
and pay big bucks
to own one creation
made from your hands
but he shrugged
and gave a toothless grin

It's a good knife, he said,
that somehow knows what
to shave and what to keep.
These old hands of mine
let that sharp fellow
lead the way until something
takes shape in my hands
and I lay the blade down

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Submitted on May 01, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
6

Quick analysis:

Scheme XXXXXAAX BAXXBCXX XXXXXXCX
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 536
Words 107
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

Salvatore Buttaci

A retired teacher and compulsive writer, I ply the writing craft daily, composing poems, stories, articles, blogs, and letters.My book, A Family of Sicilians...is available right here at http://stores.lulu.com/ButtaciPublishing2008Also there is a chapbook for English teachers who need help teaching poetry. It's called Painless Poetry.and another book of mine, a collection of 164 short-short stories, Flashing My Shorts, is availableFROM AMAZON.COM at   http://tinyurl.com/26u8huk OR KINDLE EDITION  at  http://tinyurl.com/2f369weI live in West Virginia with the love of my life, my wife Sharon. more…

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