Last night I posted a fragment of a pantoum that I hoped to finish today. Instead, when my head hit the pillow, a new idea began to form, and now I have other ideas. I think it’s not too thunky for a first pantoum. I want to work on more of them just for the fun of it, though this one is thematically perhaps not so fun.
There are so many things to write.
There is more than a chicken egg, speckled blue,
more than the way the flash of sun momentarily overcomes sight,
more than way I am always seeking a path to you.
There is more to write than an egg, speckled blue.
There is apathy, for instance, and betrayal, and war,
there is always the way that I am seeking that path to you,
but there are drones that spill death on a distant valley floor.
There is the way that apathy and betrayal lead to war,
there is the fact that we use religion to excuse our hate,
and those drones keep spilling death on a distant valley floor,
while we ignore our role in it, while we hesitate.
Religion is a poor excuse for permission to hate.
And sunny dogmas often obscure our sight.
Take responsibility for each other, don’t hesitate.
There is so much more to write.
Prompt for Saturday
Okay, Sandra Collin, here goes. Write a poem about sticky words. I love this and am nervous that I won’t be able to do it any justice. Thanks for the prompt!
Gratitude List:
1. Dancing in fairy dust at the shop
2. Unpacking a box of incense. I smell so good!
3. Kitty cuddles
4. Rose Quartz
5. Chicken Soup with Rice–the food and the book.
May we walk in beauty.
Mockingbird Chronicles 
I’m so glad you shared yours, too, Daryl! I really get a sense of the grind of the times, and the ways patterns persist through time–the pantoum seems like a great form for working with that piece of it, I think. The repetition of the the phrases really heightens that–winds and tides and stories and balances. Thanks again for sharing it–a great poem!
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I also like how the meaning of a line can be deepened or changed by the context of other lines in repetition. Some pantoums I read have a clear shift in meaning by the time the first line is repeated as the last.
Thanks for sharing your poetic journal with the rest of us. Gifts shared return like old friends.
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I like it, Beth! I think I happened upon “pantoum” in a dictionary game once, and I have found them fun. When I tried to write one with you, however, it didn’t come out very playful. I wasn’t planning to share it, but since you have opened the door a crack for rays of dark…
Who is the Pharaoh now
Mummy zombie in gilded casket cage
Plagued by ruin of our own making
Flashing armies in flooding Sea of Red
Mummy zombie in gilded casket cage
On what might be spent such hard-fought gold now
Flashing armies in flooding Sea of Red
Slaves rise up to full height chains shaking
On what might be spent such hard-fought gold now
For we surely near the end of an Age
Slaves rise up to full height chains shaking
New children now chosen for freedom instead
For we surely near the end of an Age
Hieroglyphic hierarchic pyramids fall
New children now chosen for freedom instead
Jubilee justice ancestors long awaited
Hieroglyphic hierarchic empires fall
Annals of stories are turning a page
Jubilee justice ancestors long awaited
Universal balance shift how we are read
Annals of stories are turning a page
Can you feel how the winds changed at the bow
Universal balance shift how we are read
Babylon storms are not quickly abated
Can you feel how the winds changed at the bow
Tides move sands of color like mountains
Babylon storms are not quickly abated
Scouring in flood the Earth of its stains
Tides move sands of color like mountains
Plagued by ruin of our own making
Scouring in flood the Earth of its stains
Who is the Pharaoh now
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