I haven’t had such an effortless message from the Oracle in a long time. It reminded me of my favorite Sun Volt song, “Windfall”.
And as always, it’s a message I need. Poetry, lyrics, music, song.
“sing”
said time
the storm’s blood is like
wind music
the sky wants us to
light up these rain shadows
with seas of blue stillness
swimming around the moon
My untitled response to Henry Darger is among those posted today at the Ekphrastic Review. His work is a rich source for collage as well as words.
Natalie Merchant was inspired to produce a haunting song about him.
What do we really know about anyone else? Darger’s work is a testament to how much is always hidden from view. You can read about Henry Darger here.
And you can read my poem, and all the other responses, here. My thanks to editor Lorette Luzajic for once again including my work in this bi-weekly challenge.
we begin
as vessels, empty,
all this space
waiting to
find the right oceans—ancient
echoes wandering–
all-that-is
transformed into an
azure song,
composed from
whispers of traces—spirals
mirroring the sea
A shadorma duo for Colleen’s #TankaTuesday poet’s choice of words. The art inspiration is via Mish at dVerse, who introduced us to artist Beverly Dyer, and asked for an ekphrastic response to one of her paintings. I chose her grid, “Blue Story”, above, and did my own grid to match with pieces of ocean and sky.
The poem was also inspired by Joni Mitchell.
…Stephen Michael West died in the electric chair on Thursday night. Asked if he had any final words, Mr. West said he did. “In the beginning God created man,” he began before breaking down into sobs. Then: “And Jesus wept. That’s all.”
–Margaret Renkl, from “The Hypocrisy of Execution Day”, NY Times, August 20, 2019
Everybody’s talking at me. It’s the same old song. Do Wah Diddy. Ob-la-di, ob-la-da. Knockin on heaven’s door. Iko iko. Thy Kingdom Come.
Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? Who knows where the time goes? Every day is a winding road. Where the streets have no name.
Don’t you know I’m only human? I was hungry, just barely alive.
Here comes Mr. Tamborine Man, playing his song for me. I hear a symphony. “You will love again the stranger who was yourself.” “Jesus loves you more than you will know.”
Woe woe woe.
He’s just a soul whose intentions are good: “All you need is love.”
Wouldn’t it be nice.
I gotta get out of this place.
Baby you can follow me down. The burning ring of fire.
Hello Darkness, my old friend.
Fly me to the moon.
Kim at dVerse gave us a phrase from Derek Walcott, “You will love again the stranger who was yourself,” to use in our Prosery this week. I had started something completely different using phrases from mostly 60s songs when I read Margaret Renkl’s op-ed piece in the NY Times this morning.
The art is a Rorschach painting with embroidery (in progress).
I wrote this really quickly this morning, so I’ll probably keep coming back to edit it…
