Eight Lines

[PrinceMyshkin]

Every bird is its ominous own.
Nothing but foretells the future.
This day might be a palimpsest
of any other day, a Tuesday,
a Friday, New Year’s eve.

“Come back to where you are,”
some voice keeps calling out to us:

“Come back to where you are!”

[Hawkman]

Eight Words:

Bewildering, Puzzling
Encrypted
But when Cracked
Informative Joy

[Bar22do]

Every bird is its ominous own.
Nothing but foretells the future.
This day might be a palimpsest
of any other day, a Tuesday,
a Friday, New Year’s eve.

“Come back to where you are,”
some voice keeps calling out to us:

“Come back to where you are!”


"some voice keeps calling..." but, PM! many voices keep calling and your eight lines skillfully echo "Tale of Two Dreamers" (Borges), "The Man Who Dreamed Of A Hidden Treasure" (Rumi), "The Man Who Became Rich Through A Dream" (One Thousand And One Night), "The Treasure Under The Bridge" (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov), "Upsall Castle" (English folklore), to name only a few... (and not to forget Coelho's "O Alquimista"!)
Universal themes always look for revival.... and this is a concise one. Well done.

[Virgil]

Very intriguing. I can't say I understand it. But it reads well and with a purpose.

[PrinceMyshkin]

"some voice keeps calling..." but, PM! many voices keep calling and your eight lines skillfully echo "Tale of Two Dreamers" (Borges), "The Man Who Dreamed Of A Hidden Treasure" (Rumi), "The Man Who Became Rich Through A Dream" (One Thousand And One Night), "The Treasure Under The Bridge" (Rabbi Nachman of Breslov), "Upsall Castle" (English folklore), to name only a few... (and not to forget Coelho's "O Alquimista"!)
Universal themes always look for revival.... and this is a concise one. Well done.

The "skillful echoes," I'm afraid are accidental or unintended as I've read none of the stories you mention, but hopefully I will one of these days.

[AimusSage]

I find this most intriguing. I do not understand it and that puzzles me, which makes me think about it more. It is also well written, I especially find the use of palimpsest and interesting choice.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Virgil & Aimus Sage: This was one of those compositions where, to complete it, I skated as close as I could to the edge of my mind and trusted that I hadn't fallen off.

Hawkman, delighted to hear that you "cracked" it. I sort of feel that it works, makes some kind of sense, myself.

Thanks to the three of you for reading and commenting.

[MorpheusSandman]

I'm reminded of Hamlet's "We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'Tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all." This poem may be even more enigmatic. Almost offering corrective allusion to Hamlet's moment of revelation and resolution where here things seem much more uncertain; wrestling with, if not destiny, then our own self-fulfilling patterns of life.

Of course, I could be completely off, but that's how I read it. A fascinating piece, Prince.

[~Sophia~]

It's another shining example of one of your lovely almost "formula" now shorts that we've come to know so well but, if there was complexity here I missed it. For me the message is fairly straight forward... "there's no place like home" (Dorothy's final words - Wizard of Oz). Home of course interpreted as "your roots".

[PrinceMyshkin]

It's another shining example of one of your lovely almost "formula" now shorts that we've come to know so well but, if there was complexity here I missed it. For me the message is fairly straight forward... "there's no place like home" (Dorothy's final words - Wizard of Oz). Home of course interpreted as "your roots".

Thank you. It was, I confess, complicated enough or somewhat obscure in my own mind, and your comment reminds me of the epigram I composed for my first novel, eons ago:


"You're never so far from home as when you're there."

[PrinceMyshkin]

I'm reminded of Hamlet's "We defy augury. There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'Tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all." This poem may be even more enigmatic. Almost offering corrective allusion to Hamlet's moment of revelation and resolution where here things seem much more uncertain; wrestling with, if not destiny, then our own self-fulfilling patterns of life.

Of course, I could be completely off, but that's how I read it. A fascinating piece, Prince.

Sorry for my tardiness in acknowledging this. "This poem may be even more enigmatic," indeed! The first 5 lines seem to me to be lucidly coherent, but as for the leap to the final three, I'd hate to be hauled into court to have to justify that leap. It was one of those times when I just covered my eyes and went over the cliff.

Thanks again for your sometimes provocative but always close reading.