Wednesday 17 October 2007

A Poetic Collage

There's poetry in the shapes of the script;
music in the sound of an unknown
tongue drifting in the breeze

****************************
windchimes tinkle
leaves flutter
a river rushes by

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a red book
on a wooden table -
its pages shiver.


inspired by:

On Hearing a Lute-Player by Liu' Chang-ch'ing
Your seven strings are like the voice
Of a cold wind in the pines,
Singing old beloved songs
Which no one cares for any more.

the only translated poem in a red book of Chinese poetry

for Totally Optional Prompts

22 comments:

Jo said...

Oh I love where you went with this.......it made me shiver!

Christy Woolum said...

I have been reading a book about writing poetry and the idea of using other poems for inspriration if often mentioned. I love the theme of this one.

Fabrizio Zanelli said...

Well today happened something odd. I suddendly stopped to work and told me to have to find that blogspot profile of that... Girl? (Maybe Lady) of that city I love with all myself, able to write in Italian as I am not in English.

A sec later gmail warned me about three new comments on my blog. The yours...

May I dedicate to a poet few lines of a poetry by W.Blake I love?:

""To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour.""

ANA said...

Its beautiful...specially the line "its pages shiver"...
Love it.

Janice Thomson said...

Gosh I love the imagery in the first one. But the last one is excellent! It's amazing how a line or poem or phrase can inspire one to write their own beautiful lines. Love this set Juliet

Norma said...

You've done a wonderful job with this prompt--leaves fluttering and pages shivering--great.

http://collectingmythoughts.blogspot.com/2007/10/4230-totally-optional-prompts-alumni-of.html

Pauline said...

"There's poetry in the shapes of the script;"

wonderful line!

paisley said...

very light and breezy.. enjoyed it very much

Christine Gail said...

These all flow so well together, I enjoyed them all very much. Beautiful!

Christy

Robin said...

Nice job. The stanza about the red book is awesome.

Anonymous said...

Wonderfully done. I liked the red book one too much.

Rambler said...

like the tinkling windchimes part..
nicely done

Tumblewords: said...

the sound of an unknown/tongue...is exquisite and surely fits the prompt. Each of these has a particular poetic music. Love them!

Anonymous said...

I like how the pages shiver

Deb said...

This is a delightful response to the prompt. There's not a line I could do without.

Anonymous said...

Oh, wow. Gorgeous work, and all three together add up to something more powerful than each alone.

Mad Kane said...

Lovely, indeed! I enjoyed each of them.
Mad Kane

Unknown said...

The simplicity of form is beautiful - very much a case of less is more. Lovely.

Andy Sewina said...

I can feel the poems floating out of the shivering red book - rushing towards me...

Anonymous said...

All perfectly written. You can imagine somebody reading the book by the river.


www.thequietone.net

Oceanshaman said...

Dig that lute player line . . . "cold wind in the pines" . . .

Will stay with me all day long, and then some . . .

Thanks . . .

Linda said...

I like the way my "eyes" moved from one scene to another. And that red book! It was mine! Great images! ~Linda