At dVerse, Laura is hosting Poetics with an invitation to the Pleiades Form – seven lines of seven syllables, each line beginning with the first letter of the title which must be one word. dVerse Poets – Poetics – Stars That Count
“I can see lights in the distance trembling in the dark cloak of night. Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing a waltz on All Souls Night.” Lorena Mckennitt
The Keening
Moving, yet completely still within herself as night pressed in gently around her, she stopped in a felt moment and stood in what seemed a right place of heart. Her bare feet connecting the hallowed ground, she raised her arms to the stars and danced in saintly solace, this way and that. She keened for love departed, for all her loves departed. She keened for the unknown. As the stars passed her voice softened to a love song, for all the faces now present as she had re-membered them. Her eyes opened with morning warmth and a garland of dew.
Rosemarie at dVerse has invited us to write a poem using the word wheat, or any of its derivatives. dVerse Poets – Poetics – Wheat
Photo: wa.gov.au Combine harvester working a wheat paddock in Western Australia.
“In the very end of harvest, scarcity and want shall shun you; Cere’s blessing so is on you.” Ceres – ‘The Tempest’ Act 1V Scene 1 – William Shakespeare
Sarah at dVerse has invited us to write using senses, just as Roy did on Bladerunner with that famous speech: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe …”
Image: timelessmyths.com
“Not every cloud which darkens the day brings rain.” Heitharvega Saga.
Between Worlds
Bach was playing fugues
as the storm clouds crossed my coast
and the Valkyries couldn’t decide
whether Midgard or Asgard
were calling me,
something was brewing,
my chest was tight and
I was on edge, I couldn’t
quite put my finger on it,
I was between worlds
but I knew that what came next
would possess me.
Laura at dVerse has challenged us to take a line of Pablo Neruda and create a riposte or rejoinder.
I have chosen “Why did the grove undress itself only to wait for the snow.” Pablo Neruda
Photo: pixabay.com
“What is to give light must endure burning.” Victor Frankl
Readied
The confessional moment is pending,
an absurdist response,
to excoriate and purify
the hidden
by a letting go
a shedding of pretence,
no room for Janus
though Sisyphus is close,
tearing at the inane
letting the core settle
in a visceral landscape
where the cold burns,
let it be so!
For cauterised we are yet
emboldened,
strengthened,
readied,
for the new.
Marians made to work inside
while sheriffs roam in Armani
through forests of towers
shards and spires,
but where is the one from Locksley?
Perchance his quiver is full,
distracted, he sates elsewhere,
while the city in torpor despairs
unrequited the Lincoln green.
Image: Rogier van der Weyden 1432, Oil Painting. ‘Saint George and the Dragon’
‘saint’
Trojans lurking
evil was everywhere
and truth was not
George white hat
fired up the mainframe
password ‘saint’
and put up a shield
using plain C
located target
and typed,
ipconfig and
proceeded
-bgrun
the dragon’s lair,
now to execute,
simple shortcuts
-shutdown
-kill
Photo provided by Helene Vaillant at Willow Poetry
I Burned
I dreamt you lightening bird
twice you came to me
in the night
and I burned while
flames danced at my window
and you crackled
when I stroked your hair.
Note: The Lightening Bird is a mythological bird that was believed to be able to call down thunder and lightening (African mythology – Zulu and other peoples).
Through the roiling, boiling mass
I could see faces, places,
and many strange things
surging and swirling,
the Seer raised her hands and
immediately the mass settled
to a sheet of grey,
she invited me to the edge
and I peered in,
she uttered an ancient incantation
and a tree appeared,
the Seer sharply gasped:
“It is the Sanctum Tree”
and with her hands she
manipulated the sheet
to show more,
I could not quite grasp the situation,
the Seer was tense
her brow deeply furrowed
she took my hand firmly
and urgency spoke,
“Keeper, your hour has come,
you must go to her.”
