Traversing the Hexagrams
His grizzled, stooped form wheezes
from the back porch, pleading.
The small girl looks, still in sandbox,
from across the yard, refusing.
She nods, beaten in the kitchen.
Uncle, brother, and a game friend go
to pound him and his mouthy brother;
her stuff in the bed of rusty truck.
Pale, weak, she signs the waivers
that will excise cursed rotten pear,
symbol of union’s failed sustenance;
meticulous escape planning begins.
Cuckoo clock lies in dusk’s snow;
they enter, find smashed china, dis-
placed dirt, mangled plants, and
a finally resigned, departing drunk.
Whether through fate or chance,
subconscious or willful choice,
beginnings commence; so too do
often calamitous, vital endings.
Note: Seen often only in retrospect.
Top image: “Hexagram 17 — Sui,” by Denise Weaver Ross
This is a cadralor form poem.
I chose #4:
End by going back to the beginning (circle back to an image, replicate your syntax, repeat a thesis, return to the start of the story) similar to Robert Frost in ‘Fire and Ice’, about the end of the world, which it is said was the inspiration for the title of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire.
I see each of the first four stanzas as watershed moments, where they act as the ending of a particular cycle or situation. I used hexagrams in the title because hexagrams in the I Ching represent a waxing and waning of a situation. As each wanes, the circuit completes and opens space for new cycles.
Kim is today’s host of dVerse’ Poetics Tuesday. Kim says:
The poem I would like you write is about the end of something: the end of a season, a relationship, a story, a letter, a journey, a dream, a life, the world, etc. You can write in any form, rhyming or not; just make sure it ends in one of the ways described above – and let us know which you chose and why.
Tao Talk 
Well that is some plan to excise the cursed rotten pear. Love the ending: beginnings commence; so too do
often calamitous, vital endings.
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Thanks, Grace.
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That last stanza was a real kick in the butt!
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Life synopsized in one idiom. lol
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The hexagrams are a good choice for this. Each line (and each hexagram) has its own story and each leads to a new line, a new situation with a story that has grown out of what came before. Let’s hope this story has a happy ending. (K)
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Lovely comment, K. Me too.
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A sad but well written scenario, Lisa. I hope this was fiction!
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Thank you, Dwight. I wish I could say it was.
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I am sorry to hear that.
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Lisa, I admire your excellent use of the form and I sense a glimpse of hard hope in the ending. Well done!
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Lynn, hard hope is an excellent way of describing it. <3
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The first thing I read was the title (of course!) and it intrigued me, and then I was gripped by the opening stanza. This is such a harrowing poem, Lisa, written in a form that reinforces the atmosphere. The ending you chose fits the subject well, and the snapshots of a whole story are little stories on their own. The image you paint in these lines is powerful:
‘Cuckoo clock lies in dusk’s snow;
they enter, find smashed china, dis-
placed dirt, mangled plants, and
a finally resigned, departing drunk’.
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Kim, thank you so much for the feedback. This is a form that Peter had us write to a few years back, where the first 4 stanzas are separate snapshots and the 5th pulls them together. Thank you very much for your prompt, Kim, it got me looking deeper into oft-reflected-upon incidents.
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You’re most welcome, Lisa, and I’m glad that the prompt has appealed to you and other poets.
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This is complex and hard hitting Lisa. Each stanza is another punch. Well done.
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Kim, thank you.
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Very evocative story told in your poem Li. 👍🏼
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Sadje, thank you.
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My pleasure dear friend
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Truly a dark story… we wish for a happy ending.
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Bjorn, thank you. As long as it isn’t the end, it is a happy story.
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Another great choice! I love the colours and the see-through quality of the painting. 🤩
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Gia, it took me awhile to find the right image. I love how the person interpreted the hexagram in color/image. There is a whole set of them out there on the net.
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Thank you for the effort. 🤓🙏
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My pleasure!
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The response you left for Dwight made me sad … a difficult poem (beautifully composed) to read … and then the “reality” punch. And I know more about hexagrams now.
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Helen, all in the distant past (mostly) but the effects never truly leave. I limp along and enjoy life as it (and I) is/am these days. Thank you for your kind comment. I very much enjoyed your poem about cultivating such a place for all <3
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This is a powerful and necessary poem in a world where the perpetrators of domestic violence are emboldened by despicable, self-aggrandizing leaders who boast about their “conquests” and what they can get away with, and in the process cheapening all life. Oh, were it all fiction.
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Steve, THANK YOU for getting it. I am always thankful for men who can see it and have the courage to speak out when they see it. There will be a tipping point for it, where it just won’t be tolerated anymore.
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Oh, I do hope that point comes soon, my friend.
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A very raw, poignant poem. I like the “the circuit completes and opens space for new cycles.”
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Jude, thanks very much. Onward!
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I can see too many families in this situation… each move a new start. And yet sometimes old habits reunite ugly situations. One reads your poem and hopes for the best of new starts.
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Jules I see you grok the poem. Thank you for your benevolence.
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‘grok’…?
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok
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I just put Grok definition in the search and got what I needed. I’ll look at the link though….
Fascinating!
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Ah… I had to look up that definition – Yes.
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I do thank Heinlein for creating that word/concept. Down side, not everyone knows it.
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I didn’t. Not a word I think is commonly used. Fun though.
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Lisa, this is incredible. Each stanza begins the circle.
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Sara, thanks so much <3
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Though calamitous, some endings are vital. I like your resolute ending.
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Melissa, it is the way of things. Thanks for reading and bringing this poem back to me. I know you know the feeling of seeing an old poem, reading it, and wondering did I write that?
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