I am King of Air.
It is my playground that you title sky.
Your world is my blanket: the thin, hard earth
and the shining water.
The thrill of my bright kingdom
burns like fire.
The bright all-consuming fire
Beams down upon me, lighting empty air.
I'm swimming in the joy of my true kingdom.
The blinding ball of flame caught in the sky
is reflected cool and calm in empty water.
Below are all the countries of the Earth.
How can you live enfettered by the earth?
How terrible to never know the fire
that's never to be quenched or dulled by water.
To never feel the thrill of air,
joy unbounded in the sky.
Rule only dirt: that is no kingdom.
You think to claim my kingdom?
You violate it, clad in shining Earth?
Such as you can never hold the sky,
though you may soar within it, pushed by fire.
Mine is the euphoria of air,
you cannot quell my joy with tears or water.
From above, mine also is the water,
those joyful drops that populate my kingdom
with blessed coolness, sudden in the air.
and, spent, they fall to tease you trapped on earth.
They fall upon your shelters and your fire:
I hear you curse the blessing from the sky.
In your dreams the world, my sky,
and the deceptive, curling water
are nightly ravaged by blood and fire.
Dreams are your true kingdom,
not the earth.
Yours is not the air.
Leave me to my sky, and to my kingdom
and you may have your water and your earth.
My warmth and fire are only found in air.
Author notes
This is a sestina, a piece six plus one verses long where each verse is six lines long except the last, characterised by the pattern in which the last words of the lines are repeated. Technically difficult to do, so I hope this is clear.
Written July 22nd, 2005
A contest entry
- Spirit by CarolDesjarlais.
300 points, ended July 22, 2005, 7 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
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yes, it is so difficult to do but well done and you beat the odds great one to write on, formed very nicely,Keep penning Linda
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Congratulatioins a worthy winner!
~Katie~
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Congratulations! WEll done
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Wow, a difficult form and so delicately dipped in meaning.
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