Cookala's thread of fear and trepidation

[cookala]

Angela, saw your reply and I had to come back and say, thanks! that's high praise indeed! if you do get a plant, don't throw it out when it's done flowering - let it keep growing until Sept then cut it back and stop watering and place it out of the light. come January, give it water and in a few days it will come back to flower again. it may even start to send up shoots on its own before you water it in Jan. I've had mine for I think 8 years now. sure getting my money's worth, lol!!

[Sorella]

Hi there, tireless fluffer,
What a light and floating feel to this poem, just right for a description of fog at many levels. Can't see you running out of inspiration ever this year 😊
Sorella

[cookala]

Thank you Sorella and Angela for taking the time to stop by and comment - fluff floats me!!! and Happy Easter!!

[cookala]

Happy Easter!!!


5. Thoughts On A Late Winter's Day

People promenade along the beach front boardwalk:
families, couples, singles. Everyone’s been inspired
to take advantage of fifty degrees glorified
by a sunny sky on this early March day.

Naked trees form a severe symmetry along the hilltops
that tumble down to sand and sea. Someone has scratched
Katrina and Denis 4 EVER inside a heart
on the wide aluminum rail where I sit.

Gazing out at the water my mind wanders
and I wonder who they are and if they
are still together, still tucked in a cocoon
of blissful love or drowning in discontent.

Snippets of conversation intrude upon my speculation
as does the loud flap of running shoes as they reverberate
off the silvered wood, then fade away. I muse once again
about my singleness; my atypical life and all of its grey pages
and what those people would think if they knew
the who’s the why’s and the when’s.



.

[Sorella]

Cookie,
Envy you Long Island, and pleased to enter your wide open spaces (grey pages? Ha! not at all) for solitary musings. The poignant Katrina and Denis touch sets it off nicely.

Sorella

[prokopton]

Ah cookie,
the midmorning reverie goes well with a shot of scotch -
all that subtle sonicry: spying the sky, flying and flapping,
bright baring, spring splendour, ceaseless churling chased,
and so on, is lovely! I felt refreshed just breathing it out as I read it.

And Amaryllis, with white opalescent towers,
ivory shafts seeking sunlight - what fun!

So.. let's have more. Shall we?

best of luck with it,
I shall be back!
G.

[cookala]

Sorella and Geoff- thans you for stoppingin - glad you enjoyed! and holy crap! it's 57 deg out and warm with no wind so I am going for a walk! be back later to fluff you guys! (stay puff or bounce?)

6. A Quick Glimpse Into Pressing Matters

He pecks at the Hermes 2000
while an aria resonates…
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma!
Tu pure, o, Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza,
guardi le stelle
che tremano d'amore
e di speranza.

in the background there are several
bodies arrayed in a tangle of flesh,
now sleeping.
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò
quando la luce splenderà!

He is torn between conscience
and desire, between the need
and knowing how these things spear the heart
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
che ti fa mia!
(Il nome suo nessun saprà!...
e noi dovrem, ahime, morir!)

He lights a smoke, pours two fingers
of Talisker and sighs, then opens
a book of poems
Dilegua, o notte!
Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle!
All'alba vincerò!
vincerò, vincerò!




Translation

"Nessun dorma" (English: "None shall sleep")[1] is an aria from the final act of Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot,[2].
It is sung by Calaf, il principe ignoto (the unknown prince), who falls in love at first sight with the beautiful but cold Princess Turandot.

Nobody shall sleep!...
Nobody shall sleep!
Even you, o Princess,
in your cold room,
watch the stars,
that tremble with love and with hope.

But my secret is hidden within me,
my name no one shall know...
No!...No!...
On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.

And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...
(No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.)

Vanish, o night!
Set, stars! Set, stars!
At dawn, I will win!
I will win! I will win!



.

[Scrow]

Hello,

There is so much to like here - such a rich thread!

"Amaryllis' is gorgeously sexy, and also fun.

"The Beauty of Decay" is lovely in reminding us to look to the small things, and not to forget to think outside the box - I love 'seasons and cycles of rain' and 'obese gravity'.

I'm so glad you provided the translation for 'A quick glimpse' (thank-you), and I love the contrast set up by the libretto of the Opera and the actions of N. I'm not sure what a 'Hermes 2000' is, but I'm thinking it's perhaps some kind of ironing gadget? However, the inference works well, as we start off thinking of the Gods in some way.

Lovely reading - thank-you

Sarah

[cookala]

Hi Sarah! (Scrow) and thanks for reading - wasn't sure how that would go over, glad you liked it. To answer your ? a Hermes 2000 is a typewriter (I think you could probably call them antiques )

[prooftheory]

There is something hyper-romantic about "Quick Glimpse". The writer - listening to opera - working on an old typewrite - drinking scotch - naked people in the same room. It's like a fantasy of what it's like to be a writer. Does the opera invoke the fantasy or does the fantasy invoke the opera? Nice poem.

[bop]

Cookie,
I love S1 of Midmorning Reverie. '...spy the sky and its flock ...' lovely 'k' sounds. I also like' flight and flap ... 'and the 'c' sounds in S3.
Keep up the good work.
bop

[Janet]

Hi Cookie- wonderful thread you have going here. Enjoyed Morning a reverie tremendously...a joy to read flowers sipping the sun and truly taking in the moment. Being an artist and liver of patterns/"tapestries" found in nature and life's backdrops, I'm also quite taken with The Beauty of Decay. A lovely read, esp.: curled paint, dark umber knots and silvered sides of a ramshackle barn.














.

[BruisedOrange]

Hi there--I really love your Glimpse. The writer with pressing matters, both in his mind and it seems, on his heart, struggling to get it out, then retreating to his book of poems. Tomorrow, tomorrow! Nice.

Jen

[Angela]

Cookie,

I do plan on getting some plants from the nursery. I put an Amaryllis on my list. I usually kill houseplants really easily, so thanks for the tips!

The Beauty of Decay: Oh! I like how you take us down close to things easily overlooked. Seemingly ugly things. The title is good. I was not sure what this was going to be about. The descriptive language is good. I particularly liked:

if you look close enough
near a water source, down below by your feet
you can see where forest moss has settled
upon sand and leaf mould in organic growth;

...because my daughter and I want to build a tiny fairy garden inside a pot. We have been looking for a moss that is just like the moss that grows under our outdoor spigot in high summer.

I really enjoyed this. Cool idea for a poem.

Angela~

[Arlene]

first, fog, and the sharp sting of rain waking dormant senses (forgive my paraphrasing), you have such a way with nature, how you make the reader feel the fog...is it the sibilant sounds, the 'esses'? not sure, don't care, just lovely is all. and then we see why, maybe, where you are, sitting on a beachfront boardwalk, and those i do know, envy how well you capture the ambiance, and now this last, writing to an aria, staged by a poet, glorious.