Ode to Knots, by Karen George

Ten Knots by Arthur Briscoe, (England) 1926

Ode to Knots 

Essential, to secure parts together & in place, as in 10 to keep sailboats afloat (square, cleat, figure-eight), as in sewing to hitch stitches, prevent seams from unraveling, fancy French knots in embroidery, macrame knots. As in knotting a scarf, a necktie, tying the knot of marriage. Since prehistoric times, symbolic of life cycles, connectedness, a promise of love, loyalty, faith, friendship. To eat: pretzels, garlic knots. A measure of speed: one knot denotes one nautical mile per hour. Burls in trees, formed in response to stress from an injury. Even our DNA contains molecular knots. You don’t want knots in your hair or pet’s fur, that uneasy feeling in your gut, or a spasm in a muscle. Now if you were a hagfish, an eel-like mucus-making sea creature, you could tie yourself in knots to slip through tight spaces, escape predators.

Karen George

Karen George is author of the poetry collections Swim Your Way Back (2014), A Map and One Year (2018), Where Wind Tastes Like Pears (2021), and Caught in the Trembling Net (2024). Her award-winning short story collection, How We Fracture, was released by Minerva Rising Press in January 2024, and her poetry appears in The Ekphrastic Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Lily Poetry Review, and Poet Lore. Her website is https://karenlgeorge.blogspot.com/.