The Turning Of The Worm,
Painting by Christian Michael
Your Faithful Hound
Catch your scent upon the wind, it stirs my heat;
Burning bright, a dog turned wolf, I range night sky,
Sniff you out, star drunk, to where we always meet.
Mystery. There is no sense. Do not ask why
Comes this urge to go and fetch with earnest howl
Fermented myst goblets to and fro ‘crost time;
To weave and sate wordless yearnings of the soul.
You turn, warm-beamed, to feign surprise, in vain,
Pull me close, swaddled tight by your cosmic growls;
Croon me through vortices of death, birth, and pain.
Alchemize cocoon, you gift me old as new;
Bright dawn’s spright, fuzzed pup alights on earth again.
My light springs from yours, as sun illumines moon.
Faithful hound always, as written in the runes.
Palinode to the above poem:
Avoidant Worm
When I hear your shuffle down the hall, revulsion swells.
A loathesome sound, like Pavlov’s bell to a research dog.
My pace quickens to depart, to charcoal imminence of hurl.
Your predictability is no bore, but a blessing in tacit warn for
which — though I’ve searched for other reasons — I thank you.
Knowing where the shadow of your architecture blots sun
makes it simple to build routes around, ruts of seamless peace —
except each morning, when you arise erratically in tacit spite.
I’ve come to adjust in such a way that our eyes meet briefly
as you walk into the kitchen as I’m walking out to meet day,
a question dying on your breath, as I close your gloom away.
Chastised through email, text, and call, as I, too distant
to grate directly from your wheezing voice to my weary ear,
your draining virus carries through gigabyte winds of wireless.
My gloom borne from yours, as night steals golden light,
I’ve become a tired, avoidant worm, under your curse.
Laura is today’s host of dVerse’ Meeting the Bar. Laura says:
Poetry Form: The Palinode
A poem that contradicts or retracts something the poet has previously written.
For example people, things, ideas, once loved, liked, admired are written with a negative or opposite connotation (or vice versa).
-
Take one of your own poems and write a Palinode as response to it (link to original or put alongside)
OR -
Write a Palinode of contrary views, as though you have changed your mind/opinion halfway/some way through
(see for example Wilfred Owen’s “A Palinode”)
Note: Remember today is white lie day so it does not have to be true!
Tao-Talk 
Exactly antithesis of the first poem. Well done Li.
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Sadje, thank you, I did my best.
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Well done dear friend 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
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Almost like magic, Lisa, you turned a faithful hound into an avoidant worm! I love the original poem, so warm and fuzzy, it touched my heart. The palinode does what it says on the tin, especially in these lines:
‘When I hear your shuffle down the hall, revulsion swells.
A loathesome sound, like Pavlov’s bell to a research dog’
and
‘Knowing where the shadow of your architecture blots sun
makes it simple to build routes around, ruts of seamless peace’.
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Thanks, Kim!
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My pleasure!
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there is a great deal being said (so well and in rhyme too!) in the original which the Palinode turns on its head and makes so much impact
“your draining virus carries through gigabyte winds of wireless.”
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Thank you, Laura. I enjoyed the exercise of flipping the script.
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This is such a great palinode… the two views are so totally opposite… I just hope that the second is not just what had happened a few years (or even weeks) later.
This:
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Thanks much, Bjorn. Fictional flip (mostly.) It’s more of a composite.
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I liked the first poem. I’d never heard of a Palinode
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Thank you, Glyn. I didn’t think I had either, until I went to add that category to my poetry list and it was already there lol. Will have to look up the poem I must have written to it before.
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Outstanding work.
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Thanks much, Shirley :)
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your words, ” . . . white lie day so it does not have to be true!” False, repent, that statement itself is a liar. Loved your poem/
..
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LOL that’s funny, Jim. Very zen. Thanks much.
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You really turn the entire atmosphere inside out–well done.(K)
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Thanks, K. It was from one extreme to the other, from adulation to revulsion.
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Life is like that sometimes…
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I liked the second one the best. I love the line “Knowing where the shadow of your architecture blots sun” …that is great.
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Thanks, Max. She has a real aversion to this fellow.
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I’m hoping the first is reality and the second just an exercise, Lisa.
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Judy, they are both composites of extremes from experiences over the years. Thanks for reading and wondering.
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I took a moment to spot the worm in the painting, then I looked on the bottom right corner. 🤓
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If I’m looking at what you’re looking at and think it is what it looks like it is, EW!
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So well done, Li. You effected the flip with consummate ease. 🙂
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Punam, easy with extremes. Not so easy with subtlety. I usually stick with easy lol Thank you.
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