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The strange museum


As he creeps in
under the watchful eye of a peacock feather-

surrounded in the psychedelic swirl
of blown vinyl;

a golden sun-god
grins enigmatic in a picture-plate.

In the sun-burst orange alcove
a lava lamp and fibre optic U.F.O.
illuminate a dead kingfisher
strung to the mast of a sailing ship-

the most beguiling of all black buddhas;

and in the flickering shadow of an Indian dreamcatcher

stands a curious,

stuffed emu in candlelight.

Once inside the strange museum
the overpowering smell of mildew cannot dampen
his enthusiasm-

in fact

the odour leads him to these memories' door.




Author notes

ASHES. FLOORBOARDS. POW Contest. How certain smells can take you straight back to certain points in your childhood/life, far further than any picture your mind's eye could ever conjure up. For me the smell paves the way for the ensuing images. Mould makes me yearn for something old. I used to live in a house like this (minus the stuffed emu)

A contest entry

yO

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Comments

1 - 25 of 25

  • Heavenly Angel gold member
    April 6

    Edit | Reply
    Oh this is a fine piece!
    Loved it!
    A great entry in this contest!
    I wish you the very best of luck!!!


  • poetryality silver member
    April 6

    Edit | Reply

    I love this! I am there! Your words made my nostrils stretch back to the basement in the first house I lived in as a young adult. LOL I detested going in that dank dungeon, as a matter of fact, that's what we called it; THE DUNGEON! LOL

    Thanks for the nostalgia, and the great sensual read. My sense are quite heightened now. I can remember so many things that happened with all the trivia mentioned.

    Excellent!

    I wish you well in the challenge.


    Much Love & Respect ♥

    Renee

  • poets whisper silver member
    February 15

    Edit | Reply
    what great imagery you have here! colors swirling, it's all great visions for the eye yet still very readable. thank you for entering


  • Kp.s
    February 12

    Edit | Reply
    Excellent description. You have a knack for surrealism, yet you make it realistic in its own way. Your third and forth lines were my favourite.
    No suggestions from me- great job.
    All the best and thanks for entering,
    KP

  • poetyaknoit
    December 1, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    wow kewl!!! i really like that. It's an interesting take on ordinary things. Best of luck in the contest. Keep on writing, ~TC


  • Anu-Nataraj
    November 27, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    u havent read the rules...

    only after u do will i comment on your poe m


  • Kiss the girl--x
    November 21, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    'and in the flickering shadow of an Indian dreamcatcher

    stands a curious,

    stuffed emu in candlelight.'

    the line about the stuffed emu made me laugh...

    this was brilliantly described

    thanks for entering
    ♥


  • Learning2PaintYou
    November 7, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    Thank you for your entry.

    I like the heightened sense of smell that you described.

  • macplodski
    October 21, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    Love it!!

    Weirdly brilliant!


  • Beautiful-N-Broken gold member
    October 21, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Wow!!! This is a terrific write!! The images are so clear, so vivid. You've done a great jon with this. Great write hun, keep up the good work!!


  • Uniquely-Scarred
    October 20, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    mmm diffrent, great word chioce loved the journey you took the reader on and once again your word choices are so precise; the imagery is great big thumbs up!!!


  • sheltered
    October 19, 2008
    Edit | Reply
    congrats
    excellent write
    well deserved


  • Heavens Child
    October 18, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    I just love how you've grown as a poet. I absolutely enjoyed this unique piece. Bravo to a job well done and best wishes in the contest.


  • DogFish silver member
    October 17, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Sounds like a strange museum in Chatham, New Brunswick.It is a two story frame house and it was created as a hobby, more or less by a number of the citizens, one in particulair who was a bit of a local Charled Darwin, around the end of the 19th c. The second floor is full of stuffed birds, animal heads and insects in glass cases. There are no kiwis there, either; but on the first floor, amoung other paraphanelia , is an Australian "section", with a digeridoo, boomerangs and other whatnots that a likeminded group from "Down-under" sent them in exchange for a Micmac birchbark canoe!


  • sense surreal gold member
    October 16, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    I like lava lamps and I sure do like buddhas and it's nice that it's black

    this is very eclectic...it feeds the wandering eyes. I'm sure all those stuff has their own stories to tell...


  • sheltered
    October 15, 2008
    Edit | Reply

    wow

    I want some of what you've been smokin'
    groovy images bud
    a very enjoyable read


  • spazpekker
    October 15, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    very psychedelic feel to this
    lava lamps and blown vinyl, smells like me mums house in the 70's.
    nicely described young man

    p.s.
    i can get you the emu if u want one


  • Freed by Mercy silver member
    October 15, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    yo back atcha!
    I can relate to the theme of smell as a "time traveler" - I was experiencing this yesterday at the grocery store. The eclectic decorator - can I have her card, so I'm sure NOT to call her.

    Again, nothing commonplace about this poem. I enjoyed the list of odd objects placed together, using odd sources of light.

    You create a mood here of strangeness for me, but one familiar for you.

    I enjoyed this piece.

    Scores will follow.

  • Yvette Champ gold member
    October 14, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Sensory Perception Poetry, the museum of the mind frames the strangest files and frees them again in the breeze blowin' down wind, indeed a smell, a taste, a sound, a sight, and oh so much may move us to colour those moments all over again and enable them to carousel within our senses.

    What a surreal museum, a mind ship, shifting through time and tangents at a warp speed of smell factor 5.

    Neat.


  • trista gold member
    October 14, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Hi and welcome to the POW!

    For me, it's the smell of fresh cut grass or alfalfa that does it every time...that and a certain men's cologne, bring back some of the strongest memories/images I can even think of, from my childhood and 20's. Thus relating, I love your theme...it's been a good week for unique themes, actually...but unlike some of the others, I can't imagine I'll ever see this one again...at least not with the kinds of descriptions you have. Psychedelic, to say the least! Hard to believe you didn't have that emu to go along with all the rest...a whitetail deer, maybe?

    I did have a little trouble putting the pieces together at the end to understand just what the theme was. When the last two lines came...it made me think, "ax murderer" Don't ask me why...it could be the fact I'm overtired...or maybe it was the "disturbed" feeling so many seemingly crazy objects thrown together gave me. Not sure how others will interpret this, but for me at least, something like "the odour leads him to these memories' door" would have been helpful in understanding "door" to be a metaphor rather than (or as well as) being literal.

    Second to last line, is "actual" necessary?

    There are a few places I'd have rather seen a period vs. the semi-colons, and at least one dash (the last one) I'd have rather seen as a semi-colon...but much of that is personal opinion/preference. However...most distracting and confusing to me was the dash/hyphen use. For any compound words, such as "picture-plate", remove the spaces before and after the hyphen...otherwise it acts as a dash, which became very confusing at times. Also, I believe "candlelight" is one word.

    "stands a curious in candle - light
    stuffed emu."
    These lines were awkward both in meaning and spacing...because the hyphen looks like a dash, I first read it as, " a curious in candle" ...which of course made no sense...but because of the line space between "light" and "stuffed" it took me a couple of reads before I put the whole thing together...a rather major stumbling block IMO. I'd suggest something like...
    "stands a curious, stuffed emu
    in candlelight."
    However...if you feel strongly about keeping the word order and spacing as you have it, putting a comma after "candlelight" would help connect everything, letting the reader know the sentence continues to the next line.

    Other than those few things, I thought this very creative and visual. Anything that forms such a strong picture in my mind is bound to have a long-lasting effect, so great job on that.

    Thanks so much for joining us again and sharing such a colorful slice of life; I highly enjoyed the read. My scores will be in the final notes for the contest...


    Good luck and best wishes,
    ~J.
    P.S. Remember...no editing once a judge has commented, until after the contest has ended...

  • Starz of Heaven gold member
    October 12, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Hi there and welcome to pow
    I did think that this was interesting piece that you have written here I have not seen anything like this on here before so that is a plus for you my score will appear at the end of the contest be well.


  • NeonRose
    October 12, 2008

    Edit | Reply

    Welcome, Floorboards,

    I certainly found this to be a "psychedelic swirl" for my mind. Rather nightmarish, in fact. My condolences to you if, in fact, you lived among this collection of strange objects!

    Rather uncommon theme, I would say..certainly uncommon content!

    As poetry, this did not really speak to me, personally, but I find no major fault with it either.

    The visual is truly brought forward, and the flow is good, considering the wide aspect of the lines individually. Again,IMO, the shortness of lines tends to hamper the forward progress, but not fatally.

    Just a note: Your title should be capped, even if you do not use capping or punctuation in the body of your write.

    My scores will appear with final remarks. Best to you in the contest!

    Remember, no editing once a judge has commented.


    • Floorboards
      October 12, 2008
      Edit | Reply
      Hi there, thanks a lot for your comment, I take it you mean that I was meant to cap each word in the title?

      Alex.

  • Bad Bill
    October 12, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Brilliantly atmospheric, Alex, finished or not. You really brought this to life (so to speak).

    Good one,
    Bill


  • cutiepie gold member
    October 12, 2008

    Edit | Reply
    Ah, yes...I remember the strange odor that is a permanent resident in the museums Clever take !. Good luck in the contest

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