This poem is a storm forming on the horizon.
This poem is the inky colour of thunder-clouds.
This poem is my love of the brooding before the eruption
(and of the eruption).
This poem is a gathering darkness, both threat and promise.
When the storm comes, we know it will be explosive,
wild and shattering, in a way that stirs the blood …
and that afterwards there will be clean air, sunlight, peace.
This poem is dark grey, or smokey blue, deepening to black.
This poem is made of ink and passion, sensual arousal and observation,
elements collecting at the edge of consciousness until,
with a roar and a flash of light, they overflow onto the page.
This poem is the way I love the hunkering down of the sky,
love the birds, alert and aware, hurrying to safety ahead of
the coming downpour and relentless wind – and afterwards
love the re-awakening of cleansed earth, clear sky, birdsong.
This poem is a necessary clearing of the air; a burst of inspiration.
This poem is all the ink staining my fingers in many years of writing.
This poem is my love of words, my love of feeling, my love of life.
This poem is written for Friday Writings #94, Storm, Ink, Love, at Poets and Storytellers United, in which Magaly invites us to use these words in a piece of writing.
I thought this prompt was tailor-made for Hannah Gosselin's Boomerang Metaphors, a favorite form I love to return to from time to time. As it has become difficult to access details via link, I post a summary here.
Way to work that prompt! A poem can be anything!
ReplyDeleteIndeed it can! We are unlimited!
DeleteThis poem has personality Love it Rosemary
ReplyDeleteThank you, Marja.
DeleteThe idea of storms forming on he horizon is right up my street. Impending gloom and doom always cheers me. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGlad to have pleased you.
DeleteAnd now a note for you. I fixed my problem, thank you for helping me with the word count. My added Lyrics for the two songs I counted with the fluff, pushed me over the limit. When I first wrote it I had only one and that would have been okay on count.
Delete"Sign Says" lyrics has 260 words, "Sign" has 150.
So I pulled those off and substituted YouTube videos for them. My two, the poem and the Senryu, have only 80 and 15 words respectively.
Thank you also for the 'kind' correcting so my feelings weren't hurt. Sort of like our Grandmother's padded paddle makes the point in a gentle way.
Having the two together may add a few new participants here, our ranks are diminishing. My other blog's Friday post, a meme type with alphabet, has only three steady posting and the sponsor. They are not steady commenters, varrying between one and three. I have family and friends, some Facebook, like 20 or so. Without those I would quit writing for it.
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Thanks, Jim, for attending to this, and for taking the 'correction' in good part!
DeleteThese words express my identical thoughts:-
ReplyDelete"This poem is made of ink and passion, sensual arousal and observation, elements collecting at the edge of consciousness until,
with a roar and a flash of light, they overflow onto the page."
Are you a mind reader, m'dear? ♥
I'm psychic, and sometimes telepathic – but I don't think either of those is quite the same thing as being a mind-reader. I think I must have articulated something which another poet would readily recognise.
DeleteThey say there is calm before the storm but your passionate piece shows there is also calm after, and a great deal of cleansing and productivity!
ReplyDeleteThat is my observation – whether speaking literally or metaphorically.
DeleteA beauty that graces Hannah's form. A stormy poem.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I find it an easy form with which to create interesting and unusual poems with all manner of different moods and topics.
DeleteI may have left my comments with your 2020 readers. So I'm trying to repeat what may have been over there.
ReplyDeleteI looked here and an entirely different poem. I like the repeated opening for the verses, "This poem is . . ." Once a prompt at OSI, it was a fun write. It then may have been given a 'form name'.
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I first encountered the Boomerang Metaphors form when its creator, Hannah Gosselin, posted about it for 'imaginary garden with real toads' in July 2014. She made it available for others to use, and a number of us have done so over the years. There are many other kinds of poems which also begin with the opening and/or title, 'This poem is ...' She liked that device, and eventually extended it into the Boomerang Metaphors form by adding other very specific elements.
DeleteTime I wrote another one of these. Sherry back in February 2019, did have us write one. You read it and had left a comment for me. At,
Deletehttp://jimmiehov6.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-dog-followed-by-mangy-three.html
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PS I have deleted the version of this comment of yours at the 2020 post. And I have answered your other comment, on that poem.
DeleteOh, so nice to read your 2014 piece! I left a comment there.
DeleteAnd now have had another look at your 2019 piece too. And loved it all over again.
DeleteWhat a glorious imagining of the creative process!
ReplyDeleteIt can be a glorious process!
Delete"hunkering down of the sky" - I've been caught beneath such a sky while riding a horse far from the barn... It makes for an interesting eash back! I remember this form and wrote to it. SO many great prompts.
ReplyDeleteOh yes, that must have been a bit of a wild ride! Thanks for confirming that I expressed it right.
DeleteI love how this poem forms and flows from Storm to peace through ink
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful use of the prompt words! I found the poem suspenseful, the waiting for the storm to break, the wondering where the poem would lead. Looking forward to the storm, the anticipation. I was reminded of Wallace Stevens Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, the fifth way,
ReplyDeleteI do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
Lisa, I'm delighted you got so much out of it – and also delighted you quoted that verse from Stevens. Seeing it out of its usual context, I'm struck anew by how wonderful it is.
DeleteOh, I absolutely love this whole poem, Rosemary! It all resonated with me and I am also in sympathy with all of your sentiments! I especially love these lines:
ReplyDelete"This poem is a gathering darkness, both threat and promise."
"This poem is a gathering darkness, both threat and promise.
When the storm comes, we know it will be explosive,
wild and shattering, in a way that stirs the blood …
and that afterwards there will be clean air, sunlight, peace."
"This poem is the way I love the hunkering down of the sky,"
Wonderful <3
Thank you, Sunra, for your appreciation and fellow-feeling.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed how this poem builds like the coming storm, and the final stanza is so satisfying like the storm has passed. Thank you for sharing this form. I'll give it a try.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Have fun with it!
Delete