G is for Gambrel

I started this last Thursday and am finally completing it today: Sunday. As the cliche, trite and true saying goes: better late than never:

There are certain G words I write about all the time. Sometimes so much so that they start to bore me or at best become cliche or trite.

One of those words I write and live consistently is gratitude, so I marked that off the list.

Grace is a word I love that captured a big chunk of conversation on a conference call I attended last week. Scribble over that one. Gorgeous, nah.

And then I remember a word from an Emily Dickinson poem, one that my friend Jenn read last night as a part of our Drama and Poetry Night for National Poetry Month.

The word: gambrel. The definition:

"A stick or iron for suspending slaughtered beef".

I loved the imagery Jenn evoked: she described it like a meat hook. I imagined what sort of person I would want to suspend in the sky, only tethered by a cotton collar or a stretching sweatshirt label. The usually very mellow me found Emily may have been referring to a specific style or type of roof instead of the slaughtered meet hook. Favored by barns, this practical roof style uses an optimal amount of space. Perhaps Gambrel roofs were originally designed for suspension of slaughtered live stock. I am guessing there is a connection.

Now when I re-read the poem Jenn read last night, I see she clearly meant the roof gambrel:

　

Of Chambers as the Cedars -
Impregnable of Eye -
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky -

I imagine the poet of so much infiniteness attempting to contain the sky into a barn-style roof, the blue contrast with the familiar deep red of traditional barns.

It causes me to stop and pause, reflecting on the layered meaning she offers her readers, still.

Without taking the time to look for possibilities, I never would have learned this new word. I wouldn't have known the joy of the word-love itself.

I am still smiling, now, and this was originally explored two days ago, just left incomplete... to be more fully digested.

I am working on the A-Z challenge and I still need to write into F but for now, this fabulous G is for Gambrel will do.