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Poetry Prompt: A Tunnel to the Underworld

By Heather Eure 20 Comments

tunnel underworld promptLake Avernus (Italian: Lago d’Averno) is a volcanic crater lake near Naples, Italy. A glorious sight and popular tourist attraction, it is nearly two miles in circumference and 200 feet deep. But for the ancient Romans, it was the tunnel to the underworld. The front door, or more formal entrance to the underworld was in a nearby cave; from there to Cocytus, the black river where Charon the ferryman waited, to escort the dead and the rare living visitor through the tunnel of terrors of the anteroom.

In Virgil’s “Aeneid,” it is from Lago d’Averno that Aeneas descends into the underworld. As such, there have been a long line of poets (before and after Virgil) who chronicled perilous expeditions to the underworld, and still poets who continue to tunnel through the depths of hell to bring back the riches of meaningful poetry, perspective, and substance (not just Hades’ gems).

In Louise Glück’s volume of poetry Averno, she owns a unique perspective in the myth of Persephone. Glück tells us “the tale of Persephone…should be read / as an argument between the mother and the lover-“; that is, between Hades (god of death), and Demeter (goddess of nature), whose daughter was plucked from the sunlit earth and carried down, down, down… to the underworld.

Of her collection of poems, Nicholas Christopher of The New York Times lauded, “The 18 poems in ‘Averno,’ rich and resonant — with intricately linked imagery, overlapping themes, recurring characters — form a unified collection, but one in which each part never fails to speak for the whole. The conclusion of ‘Prism,’ precisely pitched, deftly syncopated, is but one example of that, and it captures the complex, haunting power of these poems…”

In her poem October, Glück casts through the darkness to find a wisp of hope:

5.
It is true there is not enough beauty in the world.
It is also true that I am not competent to restore it.
Neither is there candor, and here I may be of some use.

I am
at work, though I am silent.

The bland

misery of the world
bounds us on either side, an alley

lined with trees; we are

companions here, not speaking,
each with his own thoughts;

behind the trees, iron
gates of the private houses,
the shuttered rooms

somehow deserted, abandoned,

as though it were the artist’s
duty to create
hope, but out of what? what?

the word itself
false, a device to refute
perception-At the intersection,

ornamental lights of the season.
I was young here. Riding
the subway with my small book
as though to defend myself against

this same world:

you are not alone,
the poem said,
in the dark tunnel.

—by Louise Glück

Read the entire collection of poetry in Averno here.

Try It: A Tunnel to the Underworld Poem

Any adventure worth its salt will be perilous at times. It is hope which keeps the adventurer steady through a formidable landscape. Write a poem about a heroic adventurer on a quest. This steely soul will take a harrowing journey through a tunnel into an underworld. Perhaps you will be the hero of this story. What challenges will meet them along the way? What about hope? What lies at the end of the tunnel?

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Featured Poem

Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poetry prompt. We soaked in the tenderness of Maureen’s poem:

for Mama
(August 19, 1927 – January 11, 2018)

We spread her ashes
In the ocean, each handful
Our forgiveness marked

What hollows love fills
To bridge the differences
Of mother and child

—by Maureen Doallas

Photo by Thomas Schlosser. Creative Commons via Flickr.

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How to Write a Poem 283 highHow to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.

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—Callie Feyen, English Teacher, Maryland

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  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Heather Eure
Heather Eure
Heather Eure has served as the Poetry Editor for the late Burnside Collective and Special Projects Editor for us at Tweetspeak Poetry. Her poems have appeared at Every Day Poems. Her wit has appeared just about everywhere she's ever showed up, and if you're lucky you were there to hear it.
Heather Eure
Latest posts by Heather Eure (see all)
  • Poetry Prompt: Misunderstood Lion - March 19, 2018
  • Animate: Lions & Lambs Poetry Prompt - March 12, 2018
  • Poetry Prompt: Behind the Velvet Rope - February 26, 2018

Filed Under: Blog, Bridges & Tunnels, Epic Poetry, poetry prompt, poetry teaching resources, writer's group resources, writing prompt

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Comments

  1. Megan Willome says

    January 22, 2018 at 8:30 am

    Beautiful poem, Maureen.

    Heather, believe it or not, I am reading The Aeneid for the first time. I can’t wait to get to the underworld part. Thanks for the link to Louise Glück’s poems—so good!

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      January 23, 2018 at 10:57 pm

      Wonderful! One of my favorite lines from Aeneid:

      “It is easy to go down into Hell; night and day, the gates of dark Death
      stand wide; but to climb back again, to retrace one’s steps to the upper
      air–there’s the rub, the task.”

      Reply
  2. Sandra Heska King says

    January 22, 2018 at 11:24 am

    “soaked in the tenderness.” That’s it exactly, Heather.

    And that link to Gluck’s poems–yes, thank you.

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      January 23, 2018 at 10:59 pm

      I thought you might enjoy the collection. Hope you luxuriated in the verses. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Maureen says

    January 22, 2018 at 12:53 pm

    Thank you, Megan and Sandra.

    Reply
  4. Katie says

    January 22, 2018 at 10:22 pm

    Crater
    volcanic lake
    birds flying overhead
    were destined to fall dead from the
    vapors.

    Entrance
    to Underworld
    volcanic Avernus
    you foul-smelling, malodorous
    crater.

    tunnel of terrors
    afterlife or underworld
    kingdom of the dead

    ***
    I really know next to nothing of mythology. Had to follow your links and learn. Thus the Wiki definition sounding-ness;)

    Reply
    • Heather Eure says

      January 23, 2018 at 11:05 pm

      Ah! Key words can be a useful tool in drawing inspiration for a poem!

      The information I found online about the lake was a bit scattered, so much to my chagrin– Wiki as it was the most thorough. Glad you clicked along with the links, and I hope you were able to enjoy the rest of the poetry from “Averno.”

      Reply
      • Katie says

        January 24, 2018 at 9:04 pm

        Thank you, Heather.

        After clicking through to Amazon’s page on Averno by Louise Gluck, I found this:

        “Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. That place gives its name to Louise Gluck’s tenth collection, in a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, it is a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time resisting their reconciliation. Averno, is an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without conventional resolution or consolation, no less ravishing for being savage, grief stricken. What Averno provides is no a map to a point of arrival or departure, but a diagram of where we are, the harrowing, enduring present.”

        I will be looking for this at my local library.

        Reply
    • Kortney Garrison says

      January 24, 2018 at 1:44 pm

      So happy to hear you were learning along with writing!

      Reply
      • Katie says

        January 24, 2018 at 9:05 pm

        Thank you, Kortney,
        I like your Crater Lake cinquain:)

        Reply
    • Shannon Mayhew says

      January 30, 2018 at 10:55 am

      Katie, I love that your last stanza is a haiku– it’s so haunting and I love the rhythm. So glad you shared your poem!

      Reply
  5. Kortney Garrison says

    January 24, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    Crater Lake

    Snow at midsummer
    to keep the ground from melting:
    path, threshold, portal.

    Reply
    • Shannon Mayhew says

      January 30, 2018 at 10:50 am

      Kortney, I love the quiet sense of magic I get when reading this poem! Beautiful.

      Reply
  6. Shannon Mayhew says

    January 27, 2018 at 3:02 pm

    #PersephoneToo

    Sun climbs over earth-curve
    A threshold, a hand holds
    A basket
    Her task it’s just to frolic
    And flower-pick

    Bare feet
    Feeling moist soil
    Seeming solid
    Though plenty-pierced,
    Pieced and pungent
    Clustered crocus,
    Narcissus
    A tapestry splash of texture-breath
    Spring makes its break from death
    But life
    Means change

    Sky blends
    and streaks from crimson deep
    to orange and white spikes
    Like Heaven’s grass blades
    A slice of silence
    Softly in tree-shades
    Cheeks warmed by sun’s rays
    A bark-backed tree seat
    Her place for peace
    And she’s a willow
    The earth her pillow
    The bird-song
    Sweet

    Then,
    A rip
    In the fabric
    Of bedrock
    A terror shock
    Earth opens
    She tunnels down
    The underground
    The thunder-sound
    Envelops her
    And Hell is now
    Her home

    She struggles to see
    To feel on hands and knees
    For the pieces
    The splintered basket
    The shreds and shards
    In the dark, the scars
    The grief
    Thick as stone

    And her eyes strain
    Releasing rain-drops
    Unceasing pain–
    Drops to her knees
    And she cries
    Until her eyes have
    Offered all they have

    Now breathing deep
    A healing sleep
    Adrape in
    A cape of
    Exhaustion

    Light enters gently
    In the new-quiet
    Fist, still held too tight
    She looks down
    Stretching finger-curls
    In her palm
    Unfurls
    Soft and yellow-white
    Though the stem is cracked
    Petals still intact
    The damp narcissus

    Misshapen, crepey
    And translucent
    Rich-earthy new scent
    This beauty different
    Both lonely
    And holy
    And only
    Known
    To those
    Whose bones have soaked
    In darkness

    Reply
    • Katie says

      January 27, 2018 at 3:22 pm

      Shannon,
      Especially like “Now breathing deep. A healing sleep. Adrape in a cape of exhaustion.”
      Very vividly descriptive writing!
      Thank you for sharing:)
      Katie

      Reply
      • Shannon Mayhew says

        January 30, 2018 at 10:56 am

        Thank you, Katie!

        Reply
    • Kortney Garrison says

      January 27, 2018 at 6:37 pm

      Really loving those last lines:
      Both lonely
      And holy
      And only
      Known

      So glad you shared, Shannon!

      Reply
      • Shannon Mayhew says

        January 30, 2018 at 11:57 am

        Thank you, Kortney! I was actually quite hesitant to share this, so I really appreciate the encouragement from you and from Katie! This poem was a big experiment for me. I usually write in a more careful and quiet voice, but here I took a Jackson Pollock-type approach and splashed the words out there as they came, ignoring any rules or inner-critic voices. It was fun; although I do think it is a little messy — kind of my intent but I still feel nervous sharing it. My kids say that it sounds more like a 21 Pilots song than a poem. High praise from them so I’ll take it. 🙂

        Reply

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