The Witch of the Blank Page

[Hawkman]

Oh, witch of the blank page,
Level your gaze and eye to eye
Direct the writer’s skill.
Speak softly, sorceress:
Steer his pen through strokes and loops
And curlicues, revealing rhymes and reason,
That when relinquished to your will,
Paint pictures in the reader’s mind
Of onerous oceans, echoing to the sound of gulls,
Mighty mountains, stark against the morning sky,
Peaks dusted with snowy dandruff
That drifts deep in all the hollow dells.
Together, speak of eagles in their eyries,
Calling coarsely across wide valleys,
Their echoes lost in space and time.
Then paint portraits of pragmatic heroes
Overcoming obstacles strewn wide by fate,
Learning lessons taught by life’s tempestuous trials,
Thus winning worth in all men’s sight,
With newfound wisdom and such great estate,
Our hero may yet catch a wife and gain a mate.
Whisper, wistfully in his ear
Of courtship and of song,
But for heaven’s sake,
Oh witch, don’t take too long.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Just wonderful how this skillful parody of time-honoured epics turns on itself at the end.

[Hawkman]

Thanks, Prince. Actually I find this form rather engaging. I think I'll have to work up an epic just for fun. Should I post it in old English, do you think?

H

[blank|verse]

Should I post it in old English, do you think?
No.

Have you been reading Gawain and the Green Knight? It shows! There's more a hint of that in the heavily-alliterative lines and in the 'bob and wheel'-like ending. Although yours seems to start that way also, which is a nice touch.

This reads very well, H-man, nicely stress-balanced lines.

[Hawkman]

No.

Have you been reading Gawain and the Green Knight? It shows! There's more a hint of that in the heavily-alliterative lines and in the 'bob and wheel'-like ending. Although yours seems to start that way also, which is a nice touch.

This reads very well, H-man, nicely stress-balanced lines.

Hi B/V, and thanks for your comments, which from you I consider to be praise indeed. Thanks also for the heads up with regards to Simon Armitage & Sir Gawain & the Green Knight. I knew the story but had never read the poem. I have now done so and thoroughly enjoyed it.

As I said to PM, I find the style/form to be very pleasing but I suspect that it does not appeal to everyone. I also suspect that my little excercise reads like a first verse of an epic - as a poem, it doesn't really have much to say, other than being what it is, an affectionate parody of the form.

Regards, H

[Bar22do]

Hi B/V, and thanks for your comments, which from you I consider to be praise indeed. Thanks also for the heads up with regards to Simon Armitage & Sir Gawain & the Green Knight. I knew the story but had never read the poem. I have now done so and thoroughly enjoyed it.

As I said to PM, I find the style/form to be very pleasing but I suspect that it does not appeal to everyone. I also suspect that my little excercise reads like a first verse of an epic - as a poem, it doesn't really have much to say, other than being what it is, an affectionate parody of the form.

Regards, H

Well the style/form here offered appeals at least to me! I enjoyed it immensely! It's rich in language and rhythm. I feel you took great delight in writing this! Also, I noticed, you're sort of flirting with the well known writer's blank page fear. Light and amusing on the surface, but just as well you could call your poem "getting past the blank page"! So it's a healing poem too! and every time you find it hard to write and your fingers stumble on the keyboard (and unless you handwrite your poems first) read to yourself aloud "The Witch of the Blank Page" and soon all the gates to creation will open wide before you! Not that they're closed now or sth...
My only reservation here is "snowy dandruff" please find something else or - change your shampoo!!!
Otherwise - thanks for sharing your pleasurable lightness of being!
Best - Bar

[Hawkman]

Bar, As always your piercing perception winkles and prizes every nuance from my self-indulgent scribblings.

Sorry about the dandruff though,
as I can see it might not be
the most comley or calming of images to induce,
but my mischievous muse made me,
at least that's my excuse!

Thanks for your praise and appreciation and again I'm happy to have pleased you.

Live long and prosper - H

[Bar22do]

Are you not British... oh, how I love WINKLE!!!!!