spider 2007, Croatia – foto Smith
“Oh what a tangled web we weave” — Sir Walter Scott, 1808
My previous post was my latest poem, “What Web We Weave.” Today going through my ‘W’ titles, I found the same 4-words with the 1st two words reversed titling a poem I wrote last year. I must like that phrase this time of year.
Web What We Weave
Tibetan jumping spiders
attach safety strand to rock
before jumping
just in case
because it’s a long fall world up there
and there’s no prey down here.
Irish spiders glue strand to this side
then leap for that side
knowing too far
but count on breeze
to blow them over
if not they climb back up
and leap and climb and leap and climb
until on other side.
I climb through karma life to life
make new knots of old oughts
while dealing with this plot
mistaking me for my shadow.
Got no safety web
no wrapped supply of fly
but I do court the blessing breeze
to lift me up and over.
— Smith, 2012
spider 2006, Croatia – foto Smith