A butterfly,
pinked by the hour, lands on a blade of sweetgrass,
then flits off.
The blade twitches once, then stills.
~ Ocean Vuong, from his new book titled: “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel” (Penguin Press, June 4, 2019)
Photo Josephine Cardin with “Butterfly” by (via Newthom)
Live & Learn 
I’m just listening to another interview with Ocean Vuong – what a gem of a gentle, inspired, incredibly gifted poet! This guy is killing me with kindness, soft spoken truth, with a heart as big as the biggest mountain! (And what a great name – he is an OCEAN of goodness!)
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Yes. And love the Ocean pun so early this morning!
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Thanks for sharing this Kiki.
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life comes and goes in the blink of an eye.
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It does…
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Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Butterflies … and their landing!! Ocean Vuong, from his new book titled: “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel” (Penguin Press, June 4, 2019).
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Another reason to stop and take it in…
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It is!
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What a nice image this brings to mind
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It is…
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The butterfly has arrived evolving passed, metamorphosis into adulthood – its beauty undeniable, its graceful movements fliting, flying and landing, such an uplifting miracle…Ocean Yuong’s words “pinked by the hour” provokes a thought of how the light throughout the day changes as it lays across the butterfly’s path and it is so true how at times as the sun starts it gradual setting a pink cast starts to deepen as the perceptive lens of our eyes adjust allowing us to see amazing effects of tinted color mellow on on the stained glass wings of the butterfly…he also says…”The blade twitches once, then stills.” the butterfly has gifted and in our Joy we rest in the awe of sight, visual memory made, his words calm…as the busyness of day passes peacefully, evening’s rest is welcomed…
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Pinked by the hour. That froze me too. As did the blade twitches. What talent make words dance just so.
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Pinked by the hour. Blade twitches. What remarkable talent to make words dance just so.
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should say evening’s rest settles in…
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Yes…
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I image that the lady in the photo could easily be a redhead w/freckles…
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Ha! Laughing.
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Dave , I agree he does make words dance and he knows how to edit…I watched the videos and learned that he like many other non-native speaker who as children translated for their parents – he learned to rephrase what he was translating to make it understandable in the English language, he said it taught him to self edit, he said it was a challenge to go from editing or should I say economizing use of words in his poetry to writing a Novel with a plot …Ii know that in an offering of yours a long time ago I spoke about children having to translate and negotiate rental agreements for their parents and go to doctor appt. with them) Life teach lessons and enhances us…
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