Sprung squalling from red gore
Starved of mother’s milk
Tilted with shadow
Clawing for life
Unaccompanied
*
No echoes nor music
Sliced by briars
Tattered trek
Storm-colored glasses
Lightning blasted
*
Tap-tap-tap
Fertility flailed
Sterility prevailed
Eden plowed
Soft white hands
*
Wilderness of bees
Callous calculations
Stumbled careless
Lulling hum – imprinted
Gaia’s minions chase
*
Screaming to the sea
Salted soothing
Gasping choking
Sightless welted lids
Swallowed whole
Laura is the host of dVerse today. Laura says:
For today’s prompt I have picked 6 lines of Neruda’s at random. The challenge is to choose ONE of them and write a poem as riposte, retort, rejoinder. Be as tangential as you wish. Perhaps you will seek an answer, or pose more imponderables, or simply pick up the thread and run with the sights and sounds into your imagination. Use the chosen text in your poem or as title, if you like. Just think of the question as a quest – fare forward voyager!
- Where can a blind man live who is pursued by bees?
- From where does the thundercloud come with its black sacks of tears?
- Do you know what the earth meditates upon in autumn?
- Who sings in the deepest water in the abandoned lagoon?
- Why did the grove undress itself only to wait for the snow?
- Where can you find a bell that will ring in your dreams?
I chose the first one to write to, with a nod to Pearl Jam’s, “Soon Forget” from Binaural and “Swallowed Whole” from Lightning Bolt.
graphic is by José Clemente Orozco from part of his Prometheus painting at Pomona College.
Tao Talk 
Love the bee-sting rhythm of your poem and that the whole way through I really did feel persued by bees! Great poem
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Thank you, Catherine-Jayne, glad you liked it.
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“Stumbled careless
Lulling hum – imprinted
Gaia’s minions chase”
Phew! a vivid and fast paced poem in answer to Neruda’s questions and there is only half relief at the end and rightly it ends in the sea/water (symbolic of emotional turmoil). Thank you for joining in!
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Laura thank you! I appreciate your comments.
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There is such a strong feeling of being pursued here Lisa.Well done.
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Thanks Linda!
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A strong poem, great sense of both blindness and victimization. I worked for 35 years with the blind, so the ending makes me sad; but as metaphor it shines.
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Glenn, thank you very much. Glad to learn more about you. You’re a man with many facets.
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Damn Lisa, those bees are relentless! Consuming write — no escape!
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Rob, I know you know that song by Eric Clapton and Cream, Born Under a Bad Sign. This guy is him. My model is someone sitting on a “potus-al throne” .
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Powerful poetry.
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Thank you :)
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A pleasure Li
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The ending lines are dramatic as swallowed whole by the sea.
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Yes, Grace. Thank you.
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Fast paces like the “Flight of the Bumblebee”. I was breathless and swallowed whole by the end. What a great ride.
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Thank you very much.
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The staccato rhythm is like a buzz you can’t escape. Great build up of tension. (K)
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Thanks, K. Wouldn’t you love it if Mother Gaia put out a hit squad of bees to take out the worse offenders against her? This guy earned his end.
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It’s a great thought. I think She will get her revenge eventually.
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Oh this was a nightmarish and vivid image… somehow I feel like the bees are taking revenge on humanity for what we have done.
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Exactly so, Bjorn. Thank you for reading and commenting.
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I played around with this one, but the King Lear images kept getting in the way. I don’t know if Lear is what you were thinking, but it tracks his journey. Well Done.
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No, Xan, I wasn’t thinking of Lear, but thank you for letting me know it was his journey, that’s very interesting!
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