Song of the Powers

Song of the Powers

By David Mason


Mine, said the stone,
mine is the hour.
I crush the scissors,
such is my power.
Stronger than wishes,
my power, alone.

Mine, said the paper,
mine are the words
that smother the stone
with imagined birds,
reams of them, flown
from the mind of the shaper.

Mine, said the scissors,
mine all the knives
gashing through paper’s
ethereal lives;
nothing’s so proper
as tattering wishes.

As stone crushes scissors,
as paper snuffs stone
and scissors cut paper,
all end alone.
So heap up your paper
and scissor your wishes
and uproot the stone
from the top of the hill.
They all end alone
as you will, you will.

This poem has a great twist too it! At first it is humorous. The reminiscent depth into the school play ground game of rock paper scissors. The game to determine all ends! And see who must do the terrible task when their scissors get crushed by rocks.

I connect well with the second stanza in that I sketch a lot. " . . . with imagined birds, reams of them, flown from the mind of the shaper. "Rock Paper Scissors" was never a game I put much thought into. I often found myself thinking, "Rock is much heavier than paper, why doesn't paper cover rock with wind could easily blow the paper off the rock?" That bit never made much sense to me but my thoughts never merged much deeper than that.

The humor and reminiscent feel leaves abruptly with the last stanza. When "Rock Paper Scissors" has knocked out every player but one, that last standing player is alone, alone with his broken scissors, shredded papers, and demolished rocks. He heaps them up and stands alone, with only a pile of rubble and scraps to show for. The poem takes a depressing turn and leaves you frowning. The last line steals all of the happy thoughts from your mind and leaves you, alone. At the end of life you have hundreds of things to show for. Your accomplishment, memories, creations, pride. But does that all matter when your standing alone in the face of death? This is a stretch but it could very well be the meaning behind this poem. I definitely think there is a message behind it and not just a fun poem about a childhood past time.