And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook,
with the photographs there and the moss.
From, “Take This Waltz” by Leonard Cohen
Polar Dark
When summers brushed our skin and winters pulled us close, sun and snow shone sparkly and clean, servants of love’s season.
When autumn stayed, dysfunctional limbo, a gloom of weighing and thoughts of straying, a straw presented itself to move us through the impasse. You crawled quickly to fetid crevasse of implosion.
I, in time, realized there’s no more living in the glare of life. Light’s too bright. Fresh air too raw.
Jet flies above clouds, just under heaven, until descent. Disembarked into polar dark, I ask cabbie to take me to sacred, mossy cliffs. She does and drives away.
My suitcase holds headlamp, shovel, woolen rainbow blanket, bottle of Beam, CD player, and disc of your music. In grave of snow, I sip, drift off to your voice. And I’ll bury my soul in a scrapbook, with the photographs there and the moss.
[144 words]
Kim, after learning that Leonard and Joni had a thing, I took the line you gave us and built a fantasy story around it. In the story, the two roles are reversible, dependent on the reader’s perspective. Was it Leonard that crawled away or was it Joni? Who is it in that grave of snow? Whose music is playing?
Kim is today’s host for dVerse’ Prosery. Kim wants us to write prose of up to 144 words and incorporate the top quote into it.
Tao Talk 
Lisa, you are such a tease! I love the reversible roles, and have tried different permutations. I love the setting: ‘When summers brushed our skin and winters pulled us close, sun and snow shone sparkly and clean’, and I think this would be Joni’s thinking: ‘I, in time, realized there’s no more living in the glare of life. Light’s too bright. Fresh air too raw.’ A clever build-up to the prompt lkines, too!
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Thanks much, Kim. Glad you enjoyed the story.
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You’re most welcome, Lisa!
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prompt lines
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You had me with the first sentence/paragraph. I can imagine this being sung….truly I can. The “bottle of Beam” is just the perfect touch for this. Well done!
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So happy you enjoyed the story, Lillian. Thank you!
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Beautifully done Li
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Sadje, thank you.
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You’re welcome dear friend
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This is just so perfectly delicious, Lisa.
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=) thanks, Dale!
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Pleasure, Lisa!
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https://www.memoriesofleonard.com/joni-mitchell/ 🙂✌🏼🫶🏼
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Rob, *thank you* for sharing that with me. So well-written and did a good job of showing where each of their heads were at. I don’t know a lot about Cohen, but I’m glad I learned he was lifting from others. You know that song, “Hallelujah” that everyone loves so much? I really hate it! My dirty little secret is out ;)
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This has a wonderful melancholy to it–not regret, but appreciation of what once was. (K)
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Kerfe, I appreciate your feedback on it. As you share it, the truth shows itself.
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Poetic words in describing a relationship with nature and another. I have much to learn from yours and everyone who has contributed in the prose challenge. Thank you.
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Thanks much, and hope to see you at dVerse again.
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Very well written, Lisa. You knocked it out of the park!
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Dwight thanks much :)
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You are welcome.
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That is really good Lisa..
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Max, thank you.
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Great one
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thanks!
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An interesting piece, Lisa
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Robbie, thanks.
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My pleasure
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Always so astonishing the unique ways Dverse poets approach a prompt. Your polar dark, the snow, the shovel, all adds to the build up and the end – death of a relationship. Yes, gret connection to the Cohen and Joni mystery.
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Georgina, thanks much. Yes we are a diverse group aren’t we :)
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Beautifully done, Lisa!
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Thank you, Frank.
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Exquisite, Lisa – when I hear of two famous people’s relationship, I may imagine them as existing on some doubly rarefied plane but this piece brings them into focus as mortals and yet, like Leonard and Joni, you have crystalised their mortality into diamonds of poetry…
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Andrew, your feedback is beautiful prose. Thank you!
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Another wonderful write – bravo!
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Another wonderful write – bravo!
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Thanks much, C4Y2!
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Great one! 🙂
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Thanks so much :)
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You’re welcome.
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Thank you for sharing. I am always here to support a fellow blogger and read their work.
Thank you
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Happy you dropped in, and good to know. You’re welcome.
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The telling line for me is “When autumn stayed” love the break to dysfunctional, ambiguity underpins this, I could read it two ways.
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Paul I’m happy you could read it two ways. I kind of saw the polar could be the literal polar dark but also a bipolar low point. Thanks for taking the time with it.
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