Have you heard the news? Books & Culture is doing poetry with the public. Their very first community poetry prompt is here.
I took up the challenge to cultivate, with a nod to France in both the title and the sestina form (We’ll be exploring sestinas more in July, both here at Tweetspeak and at Every Day Poems. They’re fun once you get the hang of them. 🙂 )
Petit a Petit L’Oiseaux Fait Son Nid
Little by little, they say,
the bird makes its nest.
I have been making mine
in silvered hemlocks, time
after time; today I used a red
thread I found near the garden.
I used to dream of living in a garden,
listening to words white orchids say
to emerald hummingbirds, red-
throated, stealing gold for nests
the size of women’s thimbles, time
beating between breaths, a rhythm mine
could never find trapped, as in a mine
long hollowed, tapped black garden
that metamorphosed over time,
caught sounds of earth-on-earth say,
Come bed yourself on rock-hard nest,
turn death to sapphire, diamond, ruby red.
Rumor spreads: inside the earth is red,
molten, thrusting gold like mine
into the sun, into evening’s nest
that sits above an empty garden
where orchids do not say
it is time
it is time
to ravel rays from ravished dreams, red
and unremembered; it is time to say
what is yours and what is mine
it is time to turn the garden
into earth, find fool’s gold for a nest.
I have been making such a nest,
little by little, time after time,
I have been dreaming near a garden
in threads of memories, ruby red.
I have been claiming what is mine
and inviting you to say
you want the nest, the gold turning red,
the time we knew was mine,
the garden waiting, for what you have to say.
____
Post by L.L. Barkat.
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Maureen Doallas says
Stunning!
L. L. Barkat says
Maureen, you are very kind. I have been stuck on red lately it seems 🙂
Padmavani says
Poignant, fantastic imagery, bursting with colour and… hunger.
Loved it!
Best
Padmavani
L. L. Barkat says
Padmavani, thank you. I think that might just be my definition of poetry. Imagery that bursts with color and hunger 🙂
Linda says
You have a way of painting with words – so vivid and filled with beautiful images. It is a gift, I believe.
L.L. Barkat says
Linda, you’re a sweetie. Thanks for the encouragement 🙂
Monica Sharman says
A sestina-catalogue?! You are brilliant.
I’m trying a sestina for the cultivation prompt, too. I guess if I run out of time, I can turn in a semi-sestina? quarter-sestina? Is “sestina fragment” a valid poetry form?
L.L. Barkat says
Thanks, Monica. 🙂 Yes, I think I have a tendency towards cataloging. Must be a Walt Whitman thing stuck in my brain.
I would love it if you did a sestina fragment. How delightful!
Anna says
Wow! I love how the verses turn and flow. Inspiring, beautiful poem.
Cheryl Smith says
Aha, found a way to add more than one blog to The High Calling? 🙂
L. L. Barkat says
Cheryl… 🙂 It was the only way they could feature us, which they wanted to do. 🙂
Marcus Goodyear says
I should have expected a sestina from you. There is so much to enjoy here, but I think my favorite moment is the density of these three lines where you introduce the image of the mine:
…trapped, as in a mine
long hollowed, tapped black garden
that metamorphosed over time…
Honestly, though, the back and forth between multiple meanings, the alliteration, the internal rhyme are all so rich. Thanks for sharing your poetry with Books and Culture.