Hoc Erat in Votis (Poetry Monthly)
By Noo
- 8260 reads
And when he looks back, it’s the sea that he holds on to
It churns
Flowing and
ebbing
Restless
But in his memory it’s steadfast, listless
And his father was a seaman,
Skilled, superstitious
But having no bananas on board couldn’t save him
Nor the touching of his collar
Nor his cat,
He whistled the wind
And disappeared in the
D
E
E
P
And the creatures of the water
Swam on
The
Busy
Krill
Balletic
Shoals
Of prey
A blue whale who hadn’t found the reason yet
To bother opening its mouth
And at the bottom of the sea
Davey Jones’ locker g-a-p-e-d o-p-e-n,
But under that,
What?
What next?
Only fish and flesh
And the dark
Of picked eyes
Of empty sockets
And every father knows that time is a hard bitch
Fast forwarding, unravelling,
Your boys,
Men in the blink of an eye
And the words on the page don’t do it
And sad songs in midnight cafes don’t,
Pauses
between
The creaky breath of an accordion come close
But even they don’t quite catch the
F
A
L
L
The spaces in
between
The reproachful drip
drip
Of silence
And the past is a spiral
Winding tighter inwards
Swirling smaller
Until you reach the thing itself
The one moment that defines
And this is his
His son on his lap
In the garden by the apple tree
He hardly dares stroke his head
It’s so warm, so vital
It contains Everything
He looks in to the spiral of his ear and
It’s infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infinite infini
But the sea is there too
In this blue afternoon
It crashes
And hushes
Its amniotic fluid waiting for what it already knows it will
Reclaim
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Comments
Just gorgeous! The shape and
Just gorgeous! The shape and font add to the rise and fall of sea and time and story. Beautiful.
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Oh Noo what a treat. This is
Oh Noo what a treat. This is the kind of thing I had in my head when doing the theme, a sort of collage affect on the page.
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Very clever
I think this is a clever use of words as well as of form. It has a real ebb and flow and it doesn't depend on the quirky nature of the lay out to have impact - it's the idea behind it that gives it real power. That's why it's our Poem of the Week.
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Brilliant to see this. I
Brilliant to see this. I think it shows poetry is made, not just written. The relationship with the page is so important. The poet effectively becomes a visual artist occupying a space. What a great theme for the month Vera.
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Deep shit, and well worth
Deep shit, and well worth diving into. A beaute
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What a beautiful journey. A
What a beautiful journey. A beautiful tale
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I think my favourite part of
I think my favourite part of this poem is the wavy line "the busy krill...." I could actually feel the gently rocking waves swishing me from side to side. This is a very clever poem
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Original... clever...
Original... clever... original!!!
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This is our Poem of the Month
This is our Poem of the Month - Congratulations!
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A poem painted on the page.
A poem painted on the page. Deeply, deeply moving, with some phrases that will linger for a long time.
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A poem painted on the page.
A poem painted on the page. Deeply, deeply moving, with some phrases that will linger for a long time.
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This is so tragically
This is so tragically beautiful. Utterly so.
-pklg-
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