Tag Archives: Quadrille

At dVerse Sarah is hosting the Quadrille (44 words) with an invitation to write about ash.

dVerse Poets – Quadrille – Ashes to Ashes

Photo: lahacienda.co.uk

“In order to rise from its own ashes, a phoenix must first burn.” Octavia E. Butler

Cinereous Beauty

I went down to the pit of shame
and sat in the ash now cold, now
penitential, itching my skin as it was 
supposed to do, but not forgetting 
that ash left long in the ground turns 
to coal, which sometimes turns to
diamonds.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
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Note: Cinereous refers to a colour – grey tinged with black – of ash. To sit in ash and wearing sackcloth goes back historically to ancient semitic culture, and predominantly to Hebrew culture as a mark of grief, penitence or shame.