It is the dawning of the age of the introverts...

[Emily Bronte]

Karin, Sarah, Drumpf, thanks so much!

Caught up on fluff for now.

Two more poems going up.

Its a struggle this year.

[Emily Bronte]

Night Music

Today I don't want pretty bird sounds.
I'd rather listen to the crows
who know the score. "Faarrkkkk"
they yell. I want to scream with them.
But I'm out of luck; not a single
attempted murder anywhere in sight.

[Emily Bronte]

The Next Great Adventure

A church yard contains many lifetimes.
There is the present, a sparkling Autumn day,
dappling the smooth stones, some mute
and unreadable, others clear as the light.
Many are younger than me. In the green
stillness I wonder if God blows bubbles
with us. One day it was suddenly our turn
to see what she had made. But o-u-t
spells out and out we must go.
Unlike Ozymandias' desert,
I feel there is love and laughter here.
The end is the beginning of all things.

[Barbara Jean]

Hi Emily. You are doing well here in your thread. I am reading through them all.

I think the poem quoted on borders has really good bones to expand on after Napo. Good job!

Where is the Line

We never felt this
in our bones before.
Borders are arbitrary and porous.
They have no physical existence
except what we create. The person
in uniform. Bright screens
that give you a headache.
The gates that manage
our behaviour with scary red crosses
that make the green arrow
seem irrelevant. The loud hailer.
A line drawn in the sand.
The real borders exist with us
and we open and close them
to reach out to the world.

[Emilio]

Mari, in Things Fall Apart, I really enjoyed the figurative language here, and my sentiments exactly!

On the other side of this, if there's anything
left, I'm throwing it away. Then I'll take
a moonbeam to the nearest star
and curl up forever in the space
between myself and the world.

I enjoyed this fire in Adjustment ‘Welcome to your shitty new normal.How may I help you?’, as well as the simplicity of Sunset, simple yet so effective and completely relatable. You’ve also captured well the lockdown of the pandemic, with unique experiences and perspectives. Thank you, I enjoyed reading through your poems,

Cheers!

[Emily Bronte]

Thanks so much Barbara and Emilio. The visits keep me going.

[Emily Bronte]

The Kick Inside

It's a Kate Bush red wine red dress
kind of day and I listen to Wuthering Heights
on repeat even though every time I read the book
I want to give Cathy and Heathcliff a good smack
over the head. And Isabella? Not going to feel sorry for you.
The man you're in love with strangles your pet dog
and you STILL MARRY HIM? That level of stupidity
is inexcusable. I reject the traps this strange world
sets for us women, and swirl away laughing.

[GreaterMandalaofUselessness]

Hey Mari

I've really enjoyed catching up with your thread.

Where in the line - calls into question the whole notion of borders in the face of a virus, those we try to impose, the ones (pretty much all of them) that it can ignore. The risk of reaching out and the borders we create within ourselves. "bones are arbitrary and porous" is a great line.

Sunset - is rather wonderful and made me smile. Love also how neatly it sidesteps the near-impossibly of describing a sunset well in words.

Warning - "You've pinned the butterfly / of my thoughts to the wall." love this -- definitely one for the age of introverts, and worth storing away to add to my stock of put downs that I'll forget when I actually need them.

The Kick Inside has me simultaneously humming Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights and feeling good about the fact that I've never read the book, so thank you for both of those. "I ... swirl away laughing" - great close and of course, I imagine the swirling done in that red dress in that wood. Having read this, I got the video up on YouTube, and one of the first comments there was "Can ANYONE blame this woman for writing a song, dressing up in blood red, running into a field, and doing a freak dance after reading that book?"

Heading into that final third now ... keep them coming.

-Matt

[Emily Bronte]

thanks Matt hahahaha to be fair to Emily I think she also rejected the idea that Cathy and Heathcliff were any sort of role models lol. The novel is really about the nature v nurture debate and Emily comes down somewhere in the middle.

[Emily Bronte]

Practicing Gratitude

You know what? I'm over it. Over the platitudes
and cliches. Over being told to be grateful
while the world falls apart around me.
Yes, I have things to hang onto.
This doesn't mean my heart never gets tired
or that I don't wake up several times a night trying
not to cry. You want me to own my feelings?
Fine, fuck it. But you might not like what you see.
Most of us can only bear the truth if it dazzles gradually,
like lightning explained to children.

[Emily Bronte]

What They Said

Anger is fruitless
and will curdle your insides
like battery acid.

But sometimes anger moves mountains
and stops the sun in its journey
across the sky.

[Scrow]

Hi,

I keep getting to your thread just as I have to make tea. I've read The Kick Inside three times in the last three nights and I still like it VERY much. For who doesn't know that song, and that book, and who hasn't wondered about it all. This is absolutely stand-out my favourite of your poems (so far) this month, and needs to be read beyond this thread!

Great to see a Shelley mention too in 'The Next Great Adventure'.

Practicing Gratitude is strong, too - the angry narrative voice needs to be heard (I worry about anyone younger than 60 as much as I worry about anyone over 60 in these times - the effects will be long-term, and we walk a crazy tight-rope of trying to balance the primal, very real needs of two very different generations). The end of this is killer-standout.

What they said - another good one, a strong image in S1 moves to reflection in S2. I agree with the narrator here - anger can be helpful, can be purposeful, too.

Good to catch up with your thread. And actually post this time! Now to make tea.

Sarah

[Sorella]

Oh another fan of Kate Bush!
The Kick Inside -- must have played that LP a million times.
Your poem does her justice!
Love Wuthering Heights -- of course y o u would, Emily!
Sorella

[Dunc]

Mari

Night Music ─ Yes, that's exactly what they say. And more than once, a whole language of it. Usually for a murder you need a corpse; otherwise they tend to hang out in twos and threes.

The Next Great Adventure ─ Good luck with that! I think of churchyards as memorials, reminders of time and mortality, but if that's where it actually starts, who am I to argue?

The Kick Inside ─ "I lingered round them, under that benign sky; watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth." The ending is worth the price of admission on its own.

Practicing Gratitude ─ No, not funny if your world is falling apart. But these things sometimes balance out; time sometimes works for you. Meanwhile, as you say, it may not.

What They Said Ah, the only thing wrong with well-placed anger is the energy it consumes. It can move mountains indeed, but you puff afterwards.

Good gosh, is that the time? Eight to May? Keep bending that oar!

Regards / Dunc

[Emily Bronte]

Travel Ban

I painted mountains and trees
and water and now they hang
upon my wall, a portal to another world.