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Thread: Choose a Word and Write a Poem or a Prose Text about it.

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    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Choose a Word and Write a Poem or a Prose Text about it.

    I got the idea for this thread from The White Book by the South Korean writer Han Kang. Han Kang made a list of several white things and wrote a text about each item. The book is beautiful. It is an exercise in poetic prose. Its intense, deep and simple at the same time because of the associations and memories of the author. Although some of the texts comprise just a few lines long, they hit the mark.

    Iīll start with the word "house".

    House is a word that conveys to me a sense of security, stability and coziness. And this though my family, for various reasons, was always on the move. We lived sometimes in houses, sometimes in pensions, later in São Paulo in apartments. I always thought: when I am grown up Iīll stay all my life in the same dwelling. Itīs true that I stayed quite a long time in each apartment. But I changed residence some times and I intend soon to be moving again.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    "Home"

    "Home", for me, will always be a surreal abstract
    My Grandfather's house in NW Seattle in my youth
    Far removed from these times, my twilight years,

    Had upon my psyche perhaps the greatest impact
    Allowed a certain freedom to roam seeking truth
    My awareness blossomed in three distinct spheres:

    "Home", with four siblings, Father, Mother was family
    Slightly dysfunctional (got worse every year) a bit
    Hard to navigate at times which gave me two escapes -

    School - no passion there; 1st and 2nd grade really
    A waste of time except for the fact that I must admit
    Books now held more than pictures of immutable shapes

    Books of fantasy and encyclopedic knowledge gave
    Rise to a place I could retreat when the telly was
    Parentally domineered and I could literally disappear

    But my favorite times were when I roamed. I crave
    The woods, the gullies, the shores of Carkeek, 'twas
    A different time, I know, but the freedom was sheer

    Joy to be away from the fallout that our nuclear fold
    Subjected me to, notwithstanding the Cold War era
    Which tortures my impressible mind to this very day

    And then we moved, and moved, and... truth be it told
    I miss the waves, skunk cabbage, and nettles, etcetera
    Looking back I see my "home" through a certain naiveté

    8/4/2022

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    Last edited by tailor STATELY; 08-04-2022 at 07:31 AM.

  3. #3
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Delightful poem: "Books of fantasy and encyclopedic knowledge gave/Rise to a place I could retreat when the telly was/Parentally domineered and I could literally disappear.(lol,snif!)

    Scraps of Childhood

    Through the mist

    A big and dark house

    with cellar

    Animals, animals, animals, animals

    immense white fur balls, napping on the lawn

    my yellow cat Jeremias

    (who choose to stay when we went away)
    tortoises, all wandering away

    Grandfather giving me a toy tortoise

    "This one wonīt go away". It didnīt.

    Staunch rejection of plastic dolls

    A toy baby car filled with plushies

    until I capitulated to Lili, the blond girl

    who was as big as a four year old.

    When I discovered books,

    reading became the extension of breathing,

    I wasnīt much at home anymore.

    I was always traveling inside a book.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  4. #4
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Danik 2016 View Post

    Scraps of Childhood

    Through the mist

    A big and dark house

    with cellar

    Animals, animals, animals, animals

    immense white fur balls, napping on the lawn

    my yellow cat Jeremias

    (who choose to stay when we went away)
    tortoises, all wandering away

    Grandfather giving me a toy tortoise

    "This one wonīt go away". It didnīt.

    Staunch rejection of plastic dolls

    A toy baby car filled with plushies

    until I capitulated to Lili, the blond girl

    who was as big as a four year old.

    When I discovered books,

    reading became the extension of breathing,

    I wasnīt much at home anymore.

    I was always traveling inside a book.
    ... Wonderful recollection poem

    the room

    my mother and father smoked - I
    remember crawling beneath the smog
    line in the front room - the room with
    the telly where my siblings and I watched
    cartoons and superman, and Disney,
    and Ed Sullivan with my parents -
    the room with the baby grand piano
    that my Grandmother must have
    played, because no one else ever did,
    except when we put our train set on top
    - the room where the Christmas
    tree was put up and decorated each
    season with ancient delicate colorful
    ornaments, most likely heirlooms
    from family past - the room that had
    leather bound encyclopedias (1953)
    where I discovered dinosaurs ! and
    sets of similarly bound books for children
    including fairy tales - the room with the
    sofa where my year younger brother and
    I bickered and he lost his temper and left,
    returning with a kitchen knife... leaving
    a 6.5 cm cut (now scar) between my thumb
    and index finger from fending him off
    - the room with a closet where one could
    hide snuggled next to a mink stole coat
    and suits and overcoats - the room which
    adjoined the dining room where mother
    would serve wonderful dinners of English
    fare on the dining table that doubled as
    a platform for coloring books (one with
    dinosaurs !) and playing with Mr. Potato
    Head and Cootie Bug - the room where we
    had an ant farm for a time before we moved

    8/5/2022

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  5. #5
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Loved this poem! Will write my next poem tomorrow morning, because in the mornings my head is clearer. (Got in late today, because I had to go out in the morning).
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  6. #6
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    My next word is "city"

    My city

    Just a spot in the universe of cities
    (or among the cities of the universe)
    But not so a tiny spot neither.
    It spreads horizontally
    with its millions of inhabitants, cars, disasters
    with its eternal glee and misery
    its scanty leaves of grass
    its uneven streets
    habited by ever increasing streams of homeless.

    But my city also spreads vertically.
    Its roots go back to 1500 and something
    when a group of Jesuits
    coming up from the seaside
    inadvertently built
    its first school,
    separating Indian kids
    from their families.

    Since then São Paulo
    has become multilayered city
    with each layer trying to erase
    the ones that came before and
    persist in adhering to memory.
    Where is that bar,
    that used to be here?
    Where my favorite library?
    Where is the cinema I
    used to visit with my friends?
    Sorry, they donīt exist
    anymore.
    Now you have here
    a new bank, a theater
    and lots of skyscrapers
    because the city is eager to enclose
    its million of inhabitants in
    10 kmē residences.

    Thus, the city that never sleeps
    is also condemned
    never to find its
    definitive form.
    Not so firmly rooted
    to its past,
    its tentacles project
    into a future
    that, everlastingly changing,
    never comes to rest
    in its present.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  7. #7
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Wonderful poem... a vibrant city !

    I too must delay for a time... so busy just now.

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  8. #8
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Thanks, tailor! I know, itīs Sunday! Have a nice day!
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  9. #9
    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    catacrostic

    cute fur ball curled head to toes when at rest
    attacks my naked feet when I try to slumber
    tonight will be another day: wearing slippers

    8/9/2022

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  10. #10
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    AAAIII! For cats their humans probably appear as outsized mammas (incomplete though, without fur and without milk) and gigantic playthings.

    Same word!

    Cat
    I canīt write poems
    about a cat,
    because the cat
    is a poem in itself
    conceived on a sunny day.

    A cat is a proof
    of natureīs sense of humor
    tinged with airs
    of lost grandeur.
    The "domestic tiger"
    reminisces of wilder spheres,
    while using ones heart
    as his favorite pillow.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

  11. #11
    confidentially pleased cacian's Avatar
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    really loved your CAT poem Danik.
    It put a smile on my face haha
    and talking about smiles...

    laughter tickles
    your thoughts
    that never believe
    you're at fault
    wrong is
    spoilt

    a smile takes
    you to an isle
    where
    everything is a little
    while
    but then
    it simply is
    a small mile till
    it tiptoes
    to a fabulous style
    life
    that never expires
    and
    out of date is fired!
    Last edited by cacian; 08-10-2022 at 07:00 PM.
    it may never try
    but when it does it sigh
    it is just that
    good
    it fly

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    Registered User tailor STATELY's Avatar
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    Two wonderful poems

    laughter

    one would find me quite dour at first glance
    unless I was in that rarified, perchance,
    moment of a giggle or guffaw come froth
    with kindred spirits cut from the same cloth
    familiarities with whom I could confide -
    you see, I'm always laughing on the inside

    8/10/2022

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    tailor

    who am I but a stitch in time
    what if I were to bare my soul
    would you see me origami

    7-8-2015

  13. #13
    confidentially pleased cacian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tailor STATELY View Post
    catacrostic

    cute fur ball curled head to toes when at rest
    attacks my naked feet when I try to slumber
    tonight will be another day: wearing slippers

    8/9/2022

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    loving this piece tailor much enjoyed!
    it may never try
    but when it does it sigh
    it is just that
    good
    it fly

  14. #14
    confidentially pleased cacian's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tailor STATELY View Post
    Two wonderful poems

    laughter

    one would find me quite dour at first glance
    unless I was in that rarified, perchance,
    moment of a giggle or guffaw come froth
    with kindred spirits cut from the same cloth
    familiarities with whom I could confide -
    you see, I'm always laughing on the inside

    8/10/2022

    Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
    tailor
    much enjoyed tailor this one is superb!
    thank you for posting!
    it may never try
    but when it does it sigh
    it is just that
    good
    it fly

  15. #15
    On the road, but not! Danik 2016's Avatar
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    Loved this two poems on laughter. I choose the same word

    Laughter

    Ripples of freedom
    Detain pain
    or conquer it altogether.
    "I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
    Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row

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