This is the bend before the break. This is the mercy not the grace. This is the proof and not the faith I try to find. There shouldn’t be a good in goodbye. –Jason Walker / Shouldn’t Be A Good in Goodbye
The night beautiful and starry Then you pull me close – whisper I’msorry And something inside begins to shake For I know in the morning you’ll walk away It’ll only hurt more if I ask you to stay And this is more than I can take This is the bend before the break
It’s not what’s meant by ‘till death us do part’ When the thing that’s dead is your heart But I see the nothing left in your face So when you tell me it will be okay I know in the morning you’ll walk away Leaving me in the pain for time to erase This is the mercy not the grace
This is not how it I want it to be My heart shattered all around me The loosened knot of the ties that bind I know in the morning you’ll walk away You tell me, I’ll be fine again someday And it is a truth that’s most unkind This is the proof and not the faith I try to find
Even though we it’s far from right When I let you stay for one last night You hold me with love, that I know is a lie And there’s not a damn thing left to say When I know in the morning you’ll walk away So when the dawn and I break, I don’t cry There shouldn’t be a good in goodbye
They sounded kind and full of loves In the pleasant weather Goblin Market – Christina Rosetti
Why swaddled in the rolling fog his ragged chemise color of bog The goblin worm had filled me with fright Dare I show upon first light, Somehow, I knew it wasn’t right So ear against the wall I shove To hear the trumpet of new voices In offer of different choices Not the nightmares feared of They sounded kind and full of loves
Thus, I the ignored the fiend’s masquerade Not a moment more to be waylaid I am a monarch, I was ready And chrysalis pieces flow and eddy On the breeze like confetti Among the violet hued heather As I emerge from my hidey-hole In ochre gown mirrored in trim of coal With only the sky as tether In the pleasant weather
Tonight at the pub, Sarah tends bar for this session of Poetics.
Inspired by the intriguing names of paint samples, we are prompted to choose one of the below paint names and use it as the inspiration for a poem:
Trumpet, Tea with Florence, Chemise, Confetti, Goblin, Mirror, Rolling fog, First light, Hidey hole, Masquerade
We are further challenged to incorporate as many of the words as we can and to have fun.
Oh, that was said to the wrong person. It is my natural wont when see a list of options with a prompt to select one to try to use them all. And because I am that gal, I do so in one of my favorite poetry forms, a glosa. Using two lines of Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti to tell this 1st person tale of a butterfly’s beginnings.
I did not know that time could be heartless In its impatient flight… how sad it is I never knew the worth of you until You slipped away one day on quiet winds Myrna / “On Quiet Winds”
How quickly love can fill an empty space Your presence oh so loud within my heart If I became unglued, your love the paste We’d have forever, if time played its part Even with life’s curved balls that we would face I worried not in those times of harshness As moth to light you’ve always come to me And for you here I’ve been and thus would be In trust I closed my eyes to the starkness I did not know that time could be heartless
We who are young think not of life’s avail That Clotho’s thread will never come to end Treating life as an ever crawling snail The next adventure’s just around the bend Day, week, month, year, how quickly it can sail We don’t hurry, ignorant in our bliss Thinking “I’m running as fast as I can” But Father Time will merely shrug and scan The sands that flow in that great glass of his In its impatient flight… how sad it is
The only one of them that truly knew Lachesis crossed two most unlikely strings And begged unto us love, so deep and true Despite our worst, to steer us clear of things That did drive many who we’ve known in two And love we did have, love beyond our fill You did not believe in blessings and such Not channeled by remote, I guessed as much I knew we were blessed, but even still I never knew the worth of you until
I felt that first graze of empty down deep My face became a moon to absent suns At brink of the final task left to keep And knowing the effects once she is done I think even Atropos dared to weep Equal to lives saintly or ones that sinned She cannot cater to the whom or what Within her hands the strings of life are cut Now silence reigns in my heart where you dinned You slipped away one day on quiet winds
National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 15
A return to one of my favorites the Glosa (classic).
This Flash Back Friday where I revisit and share a post from the past on this day brings us to a poem I originally penned in 2013, “The Life”. It was written using the glosa poetry form where you take a stanza from another poet and use their lines to create a poem of your own. [There is a little more to it and you can read the rules here if interested: how to write a Glosa.] It is one of my favorite forms to use as I enjoy creating works that go in a different path from the source material.
My poem was based from the opening verse of the song “Moon Over Bourbon Street“, by Gordon Sumner. If the title seems familiar to some, but not the author’s name; it is because most of the world knows him by his stage name: Sting. Yes, that Sting, as in Sting and The Police.
There’s a moon over Bourbon Street tonight I see faces as they pass beneath the pale lamplight I’ve no choice but to follow that call The bright lights, the people, and the moon and all Gordon Sumner (Sting) / Moon Over Bourbon Street
Everyone seems to be in easy mode The corner’s quiet on this autumn’s eve Despite the first cuts of winter’s cold It’s happy smiles folks give and receive Setting a mood that makes me bold And my protector has me in his sight On the off chance all is not as should be And he may have to come rescue me But I know everything’s going to be all right There’s a moon over Bourbon Street tonight
Casting a cool light on this patch of street I start to flirt with some and have my say But walking in the sun is a different deceit The base rules change in the light of day I’m not acknowledged by all whom I meet I know they know who I am, as they nod so polite Those men pretending they don’t know my name And the wives who avert their head just the same Knowing their husbands are just faces in my night I see faces as they pass beneath the pale lamplight
Yes, I’m paid for the need of my company And more often than not, paid quite well I aim to please after all you see But I remember when things weren’t so swell At the beginning of this life for me Like babies, before I could run, I had to crawl Now I choose just how my night is spent But the truth of lies lay evident When my pockets hold no cash at all I’ve no choice but to follow that call
For all the company I have I am still alone And I watch time shorten the length of my employ I was young when I started and now I’m grown I slowly prepare for when I’m past giving joy But tonight, tonight my love’s my own On nights like this I’m standing ten feet tall Pretending I’m just like any other in the park Out on the town for another evening’s lark Just another guy walking in the leaves of fall The bright lights, the people, and the moon and all
The story goes that the inspiration for the song was reading Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice. However, it was the haunting visual of a person walking alone at night under street lamps in the lyrics that took flight in my mind. This above poem was the result. No vampires in this night.
In yesterday’s slice I briefly mentioned how my being a little cheeky while on the phone is what made me memorable and saved me some grief when getting my first vaccination dose. When the guy I spoke to on the phone saw me in person, his expression was one I’ve seen often. The quickly hidden surprise that the intelligent and funny woman on the phone is one with purple hair, who wore a Sherlock Holmes tee-shirt, jeans and rainbow mandala printed combat boots, also had a melanin enriched complexion. While the back-handed assumption it conveys annoys me, I am also always amused at shaking that assumption on their part.
It made me happy to discover this particular piece is what came up as my Flashback Friday as it also shook an assumption. I remember the first time I posted this, I had taken a couple of the readers by surprise with the second to the last line. One reader admitted to having his preconceived stereotype of the storyteller’s gender ‘jolted’. I liked that. Did I catch you off guard with that reveal as well?
And I don’t want the world to see me Cause I don’t think that they’d understand When everything’s made to be broken I just want you to know who I am “Iris” by the Goo-Goo Dolls / “City of Angels” Soundtrack
Some question my sanity year after year That I’ m not quite right is abundantly clear Stepping in and out of darkened lucidity The voices in my head are mostly a minor din But that yellow dress you wore that day did me in It was the red cape to the bull of my insanity And the voice gained control was full of hate As you stepped to me smiling sealing your fate For my mood was downright ugly And I don’t want the world to see me
I don’t deny what I’ve done to some women is sick But you weren’t like those yacht girls who fall so quick All their smiling as they think I’m at their command They dangle promises of a young love so sweet But it’s me holding their hearts, feeling their heat And then ripping it from them with my bare hand But you, you disregard all concepts of my deceiving My inner voices wondering why aren’t you leaving Never having had an experience like this firsthand ‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand
False yore flows from my cruel lips with ease Yards of lies with an inch of truth to please The truth a means of passage, merely a token So you yawn in my face, knowing it’s unwise And yet you laugh seeing the truth in all the lies Behind every filthy word I’ve ever spoken From you the truth shines bright and sure The lightness of your heart, ywis so pure But can I believe your heart is solid – oaken? When everything’s made to be broken
And so you survived more than just the night Even knowing down deep I may never be right For goodness knows I really didn’t give a damn If you drowned in all the tears you yield Brought on by all these damn fears I field ‘Cause you were never part of the program But you’re still here and nothing denies How I yearn for the feel of your light in my eyes But mine are the eyes of a tragedy ma’am I just want you to know who I am
<>========<> One of my favorite poetry forms: a Glosa.
What have I become My sweetest friend Everyone I know goes away In the end
Hurt – Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
I was darkness and fury
To your light and sun
On a whim I simply snuffed it
It’s a hurt that can’t be undone
I thought I knew what I was doing
To take you for granted and then some
Only to simply walk away
Leaving you as chaff in the wind’s sway
And how the shame of it numbs
What have I become?
With me as predator and you as prey
I shot an arrow through your soul
You had no chance in this farce
There was no means to console
I thought I knew what I was doing
Going for the break, not just the bend
Damn how your body trembled
As your soul disassembled
And how the shame of it wends
My sweetest friend
You were my own soul’s mirror
Shattered in a thousand places
And I felt the pain as my own
In a thousand fractured faces
I thought I knew what I was doing
How I’ve come to rue that day
Seeing the evidence of what I did
I was loathe to leave it hid
And how the shame of it stays
Everyone I know goes away
You never said a word, I know this
But somehow your break struck me to the core
Never one to rage, yet it changed you
And everyone wanted to know the score
I thought I knew what I was doing
Now I am the chaff in the wind
The wounds of my hateful inflections
Forever bared in my reflections
And how the shame of it does rend
In the end
<>==========<>==========<>
At dVerse for the first Poetics for 2017, Mish prompts us to reflect on new beginnings as she shares the works of various artists and invites us to “Choose the piece that speaks to you and let the words flow.” For me it was “Shame” by Ally Saunders that got the ol’ muses attention first, for shame of ones actions can bring change and new beginnings to the instigator of such as well. With “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails as further inspiration, I use my beloved glosa form.
In the sweetest dreams, I have pictured us together Now to feel your lips
–Jennifer Lopez / “Waiting for Tonight”
Waiting for tonight
I thought love was for others
More worthy than I
As each day I woke
To tear stained pillows
Yet how my heart beams
To be fated for a life
With a king to this queen
Joy bursting at the seams In the sweetest dreams
Waiting for tonight
You were simply always there
But in keeping my distance
I didn’t see you get closer
Until I noticed there was something
In the way you touched my hand
For all my hopes were tethered
To protect me from hurt
I did not dare to believe
Yet in foul and fair weather I have pictured us together
Waiting for tonight
You untied the binds
I thought fate had wrapped
Permanently broken tatters
To discover a heart whole
Tomorrows joy will eclipse
All the pains of yesterday
This new found love held
Tonight at our fingertips Now to feel your lips
<>==========<>==========<>
Today at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, Sanaa hosts the Music Prompt with a New Year’s special, using Jennifer Lopez’ ”Waiting For Tonight” as the prompt. While Sanaa desires us to “…write down your deepest feelings regarding this auspicious event. How do you see or predict the year ahead, what are your hopes and dreams for the future. Feel free to take the subject in whichever direction that you desire.”, much to my chagrin, the temper(mostly)mental muse clearly desired to go the full on sap route for this. My eyes sometimes roll, but I don’t argue with the chick – I just go with her flow – using Lopez’ lyrics in a classic glosa.
First day of spring–
I keep thinking about
The end of autumn. Matsuo Basho – First day of spring
Lo, how she trembled that first day
Flowers grew where she tread
To quickly die as she walked away
An incongruous sight for the dead
Even Charon was saddened to bring
To the damned, such a beautiful thing
Nor did she bother pretending to resist
When her first earthly return, Demeter insists
For above the living do sing
First day of spring
Years pass and a rapport twixt us grew
I had a golden circlet woven for her as balm
A token of my love as our time to part was due
Adorned with flames and a pomegranate charm
She laughs and I thought I felt love sprout
Yet she left it on our bed with a pout
A hope had glimmered
But her eyes shimmered
It is in the doubt
I keep thinking about
The underworld was hell anew in her wake
Yet the surprise was mine upon her return
To learn her leaving it was not mistake
But to remind me that her love in turn does burn
Now laden with eternities under the sun
From first bud to last leaf it compares to none
For she now returns without regret
To lay claim to me, her love, and the bracelet
Aye, my love, my life always comes
The end of autumn
<>==========<>==========<>
Today at Real Toads, Susie prompts us with “bracelet” as inspiration. Basho’s classic haiku brings to mind Hades longing for Persephone.
National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 7
Today as I continue through the alphabet of poetry forms this month I reach the letter G, and my favorite poetry form, the Glosa.
Finding the world in the smallness of a grain of sand
And holding infinities in the palm of your hand
And Heaven’s realms in the seedlings of this tiny flower
And eternities in the space of a single hour
Gordon Sumner | Send Your Love
I think hard when I scoff at life’s demand
Can I comprehend all that He has planned?
Can you? Do you even dare to ask?
It’s mighty and daunting task
It’s beyond anything that man can understand Finding the world in the smallness of a grain of sand
For what’s a hundred years of a life spanned
When on the very edge of time You can stand
We mere mortal like Luna simply wax and wane
With only trite things called words to explain
All the power and glory that is Yours to command And holding infinities in the palm of Your hand
As I glimpse the fleeting rainbow after a shower
I’m reminded that He is the Ultimate Plower
For the seasons cater only to One whim
Over galaxies that are but gardens to Him
In the palm of His hand yes the Heavens tower And Heaven’s realms in the seedlings of this tiny flower
Oh the magnificence of The Father – Our
Time immemorial is but a page for Him to scour
It’s long past when Mother Nature’s blue eyes close
And beyond a phase even Father Time knows
For infinity’s but an instant for Him to devour And eternities in the space of a single hour
<>==========<>==========<>
Feeling some Gordon Sumner (a.k.a. Sting) lyrics in modified Glosa form.
These things and more I’m powerless to stop,
Thoughts of you coming unbidden and unblocked,
Enchanting and bewitching, you have captured my soul,
Lost and helpless, my body aches anon with your toll.
Lucius Kane / Unbidden Thoughts
Time’s jests had fooled us all to think of spring
Oh but winter but still had some fight within
Exposed by the elements did bring
Torn umbrellas now tossed into trash bins
The sudden storm made mockery of the thing
Just walking in the rain, garments given to sop
It takes away all pretense of privacy
Our peaked bodies’ crow with immodesty
It is sooner to control the next dew to drop
These things and more I’m powerless to stop
Oh send in the clowns for surely it’s some joke
How thoughts of that day even now make me swoon
And the fire within the memory doth stoke
It moves in from the dark side of the moon
And decorum evaporates like smoke
I watch my resiliency become something to mock
Trapped within my own dreams hot finish
With relief I succumb to my soul’s wish
I suppose by now I should not be shocked
Thoughts of you coming unbidden and unblocked
We’ve known each other since youth, shoes unlaced
And long ago packed away the trappings of such
Do I mistake that your feelings are of even pace?
Or do I project on you that which I do want so much?
For you to yearn for my touch upon more than your face
And there’s naught but one way for this ache to console
For without you I find I can’t breathe none the less
When with you I find I’m completely breathless
When the seeds of patience blossom into reality whole
Enchanting and bewitching, you have captured my soul
I dared not imagine it could ever be like this
That this joy wholly felt I’d even be worthy of
The elation of knowing your sweetest of kiss
Or the love that came from up above
Now just footsteps away from consuming bliss
Your crooked finger beckons in sweet cajole
And I decide there are few sweeter sounds in life
Than heard quote the words that made you my wife
No cost so high of favors – this heart can deny dole
Lost and helpless, my body aches anon with your toll.
Raivenne-lations 