Appellations

Will you reply when called?
What is your name?  The sky
refuses to say why
you hold the tree.

Why have you conscripted
this perch among the dead?
Abide with me instead
amidst the green.

Have my ghosts entrusted
your wings with messages–
voices of presages
destined for me?

Immovable, silent,
a silhouette distilled–
I seek but am unfilled–
inside stripped clean.

For Sue Vincent’s photo prompt above, and Colleen’s Tanka Tuesday, where she has introduced the poetic form Abhanga. I like it, but I think I need to experiment more with it to get the rhythm right.

Also linking to earthweal Open Link Weekend.

As you may know, Crow and I are old friends.

47 thoughts on “Appellations”

  5. How I love “Have my ghosts entrusted your wings with messages…..?” I havent heard of this form before. It is intriguing and you have executed it well.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Another interesting poetic form to explore – thank you for introducing me to it, Kerfe. Am I right in thinking it’s constructed around three questions and three statements – but no answers? I’m intrigued by the lines:
    ‘…The sky
    refuses to say why
    you hold the tree’.
    As you know by now, I love corvids, and your image and poem, especially the thought of ghosts entrusting wings with messages and ‘a silhouette distilled’.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Kim. The questions are just me always asking them. It’s 6-6-6-4 syllables with lines 2 and 3 rhyming, and sometimes internal rhymes. It has a lovely rhythm I think, although I didn’t get it exactly right to my satisfaction anyway. I agree, Crow always has something to tell us.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  13. The combination of both prompts turned out really well. I see that crow really set you wondering, Good communication you two had going there🙂 I really like this, next time maybe I’ll do more that one stanza🙂

    Pat

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. I always find it interesting that birds perch on dead limbs of trees. Is it to commune with the dead or is it to better see the living? On my walks, I would sometimes see a blue heron perched on a dead branch by the lake and I def think he was using this vantage point to score a meal.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  15. Kerfe, your Crow is amazing. The oracle is probably a crow sitting atop a tree, sending us messages. I too, like this abhanga form and will experiment with it further. The middle lines of rhyme are a pleasant surprise. It’s definitely fun to try some of these rhyming forms. ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. Pingback: TANKA TUESDAY POETRY CHALLENGE STARS | #PoetsChoice or Abhanga – Word Craft ~ Prose & Poetry
  19. Pingback: Appellations ~ Kerfe Roig #writephoto | Sue Vincent's Daily Echo
  20. Pingback: Photo prompt round-up: Appointed #writephoto | Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s