The Poet’s Best Friend
To Metaphor
My dear, my confidante, you fill me with laughter
each time I greet you again – the laughter of joy,
because I know you will embellish my tales
with your own wit, your quick understanding;
you will give them extra point and purpose.
You will take my stories, as I whisper them to you
between giggles, oohs and ahs, and linger over them
to give added flesh to some — which you’ll then
costume in red, black, amber, whatever colour
best suits the tone and shape of my dreamings.
We’ll disappear under the blankets with our snacks
and drinks; between whispers we’ll die laughing
at the things we divulge to each other – or else sob
at a memory we continue to share with regret,
but may yet decide to save from annihilation.
Girlfriend, I know you will always have my back,
until time ceases. I know you will help to preserve
all the meanings, the mysteries, the fictions, the facts
I pour into your ears. You adorn them, not to disguise
or perplex, but to seek they be written in all the best books!
For April 2020 Day 13 at 'imaginary garden with real toads', we were asked to write a poem celebrating metaphor, and using 13 non-consecutive words from a particular prose passage. My words are: disappear, die, laughter, flesh, memory, ceases, annihilation, books, continue, tone, written, perplex, amber. This poem is addressed to Metaphor, who is identified as the (any) poet's best friend.
I have now added a dedication to try and make it clearer who/what I am addressing, as my first few readers clearly didn't get it, even though I said so here.
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage /
And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, /
We Poets of the proud old lineage /
Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ...
(James Elroy Flecker)
A great selection of words and poem about friendship.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it was about friendship in a way, but I saw it as being about what metaphor does for a poet / for poetry. The fictitious friendship is the metaphor for the role of metaphor.
DeletePoetry and storytelling (too, for me) are some of the best friends and soul can have. They don't judge. They don't hide feelings. They just... take the raw and ink it into lived moments others can experience through words. Best friends, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI have many friends who whisper in my ear signs, wonders, and dark places so I will have poetry.
ReplyDeletePick me, pick me!! I'd bring a flashlight and wear a bow tie!!
ReplyDeleteThis is a fun poem, Rosemary. Good friends are priceless.
..
I think I should have titled this something like 'An Ode to Metaphor: The Poet's Best Friend'. I thought something like that would be stating the obvious – but apparently it needed to be made more obvious.
ReplyDeleteBut perhaps a dedication will do it. Apologies to all the previous commenters who had to try and make sense of the poem without that clue.
DeleteThis is absolutely brilliant, Rosemary!💝 No doubt a metaphor is a Poet's friend 😃 I especially enjoyed; "which you’ll then costume in red, black, amber, whatever colour best suits the tone and shape of my dreamings." Ohh yes!!💝
ReplyDeleteThe poet’s best friend, indeed, Rosemary, and your poem is an excellent example. I love the ‘added flesh’ and the cosy lines:
ReplyDelete‘We’ll disappear under the blankets with our snacks
and drinks; between whispers we’ll die laughing
at the things we divulge to each other…’
An exemplary ode to metaphor, and how you do it justice! Indeed, what poet could hope to practice without a friend like metaphor?
ReplyDeleteVery true. Without metaphor we are lost in a sea of undirected images--which sometimes works, but metaphor does it so well, why forsake her?
ReplyDeleteLove that you addressed this to Metaphor, a poet's best friend. And I loved the telling of the girlfriends sharing stories, dreams, under blankets with snacks....Serendipity my reading this now....I am about to have a phone call with a dear dear friend who became a widow right before Christmas. She and I moved away from each other some 22 years ago yet have stayed in touch with letters, and now facetime...and yes....we've shared many a secret, many a joy and many a sorrow.
ReplyDelete