Tags
“The fountains of my great deep are broken up.”
—Mark Twain in a letter to his boyhood friend, Will Bowen
Fountains of my great deep are broken up
and churning to an eager froth blueprints
of an empire somebody believed in with
such passion they begat the likes of me.
The currents that alarmed me as a pup
I thrashed against for years. It makes me wince
to think that happiness derives from stiff
unyielding lips sealed for sake of loyalty.
Every laundered past must one day disrupt
as eggs will hatch and thin-skinned fears evince
their bloodlessness. I blow a quiet kiss
to ossified, outdated tyranny.
The geyser of my frozen deep now flows
through limbs revived in lovers’ sweet repose.
~~~
© Elaine Stirling, 2015
Advertisements
The lens through which I’m reading found a pact with the sea’s waters, and all the forms it takes, to have the best experience of flow possible because one’s own resistance has broken at last. It paints a picture of a relief that could echo through all time and space..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Bridge. It can’t be said for every poem, Heaven knows, but this one emerged, while writing, from the category of, “Never again…never, ever again.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wonderful Elaine; a fine entanglement of form variations that together tie a very fine bow in a bow to the inevitable soundings (mark! twain!) of the seasons. “an eager froth blueprints of an empire”–what a wonderful turn of phrase, reminds me of a line I once wrote, “… by blue veined atlases that have long held up the world.” It looks like you had a wonderful time with your modification of a well known form. You continue to amaze me with your ear for subtle rhymes. Let’s hope your well sounded verses are harbingers of an early change of season.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Aww, thank you, Russel! I really like your line of “blue veined atlases”, as well. I’ve been blissing in between Dumpster and packing boxes with a most amazing book. That’s where I found the Twain line, with the reassurance that even “national literary treasures” underwent years of confusion and obscurity–and then everything somehow turns out right. :-).
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bohemians-Francisco-Reinvented-Literature/dp/159420473X
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s true, Elaine: you have an ear for subtle rhymes. Here they are firm but spaces wide apart and so ring softly in the ear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, John. Sometimes, when I’m not pushing it, assonance comes to the fore and the vowel sounds seem to cluster, almost of their own accord.
LikeLiked by 1 person