I'm love drunk, gazing at the Northern Lights
Alone with you: a winter fairytale!
The alchemy between us cannot fail.
The rhythm of the night, with magic sleights
All dusting down the stars, indeed invites
Our passion with its gravity. This veil,
O we, the good Lord's servants paravail,
Has bathed us in green light and dim delights;
Now underwater, vulnerable, we
Are nowhere and it's now: the hours whirl.
Perhaps we've different names for the same thing.
The poet and the pendulum, eternity,
A gliding star, a satellite, a girl,
It's blurry and the wolves begin to sing.
Author notes
There's a contest with these prompts in it, however there's also the judge's desire to see free verse, no rhyme. So I fooled with it on my own for fun. The terms used, which are song titles, are: love drunk, Northern Lights, fairy tale, the alchemy between us, the rhythm of the night, all dusting down the stars, gravity, green light, underwater, vulnerable, we are nowhere and it's now, we've different names for the same thing, a satellite, and it's blurry. I used as many of the song titles as I could.
Years ago I was in Alaska for a very short while: I took "Northern Lights", embellished a memory, and ran with it.
What did you think
Comments
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I rather liked it...
....until I read that so much was , as it were, pre-fabricated. Even so, quite beautiful.
I used to own a croft in the Orkney Isles, off the North coast of Scotland, as a holiday-home. The Orcadian people, with their funny sing-song accent, a little bit like Welsh, used to tell us that at the right time of year, (ie when we were never there) the Aurora , which they called the 'Merry Dancers' were so bright, 'you can read a book by it'. Yes, embellish away.....
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The ridiculous problem with prompts is sort of that one is as it were building a poem prefab. It does feel somewhat like doing a crossword puzzle or playing scrabble or something. I do remember the Northern Lights though, and despite the limitations of the "game" I managed to express something I felt long long ago and a beautiful evening and time when I was so young as to believe there was much more happiness in store for me than there was.
It must have been beautiful! I have always wanted to see the Orkneys! You've inspired me to go on an internet vacation, which is all that I can afford.
When I was in Alaska, when I saw the lights most brightly, I was up at Denaly (sp?) National Park, in the early autumn. The leaves were gold, the evergreens strangely stunted by both the permafrost and the winds, and the tundra a strange beautiful muted shade of russet, and the mountains a magnificence of grandeur, and when the sun went down, which was early, the lights soon started. I'd been sent on my senior vacation with a hand picked group of senior citizens, and my roommate hated me with a vengeance. She knew what all of us young people were about. She had me in continual tears. My mother would have been happy. I brought my guitar and wrote songs and was asked to perform in the tiny lounge and lead a singalong. During the whole time we were at the park I struck up conversations with the rangers and I had a bit of a crush on one of them, and the most beautiful thing in the world to me seemed like spending my life as a naturalist, writing songs and prose in the wilderness with the rangers and protecting the parks and being a guide. My mother would have been scandalized by my dreams. I would have been screamed at till all hours. I was invited out to see the lights by the ranger whom I liked and we talked late into the long long night, far from the light of the lodge. The green lights shimmered like fairy veils from one side of the sky to the other, and I could imagine well the eskimos' tales about them feeling more true than ours. Like vast beautiful spirits they danced! And we talked for hours, and were silent for hours together, and then the wolves howled, and their howling was more beautiful than I had ever imagined, because my grandparents had told me of the wolves in Russia during the revolution and had filled me with terror, and I was unprepared for such beauty, and for how they answered one another. -
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Ah!
Now that was a truly touching account -- and who still holds a candle for the ranger!
Your comments about your mum were a bit sad -no doubt plenty of history.....
Yes, have a peek at the Orkney sites. My croft was on the island of Rousay. The winds there never cease, and trees do not grow over the height of a wall, so its beauty is a spare and in places barren sort.
PS Who knows what happy things may yet be ahead?
Edward
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How beautiful the Orkneys must be, and walls there must be walls against the wind. It must be a haunting place of wide skies: wild and sweet and sad, and human bonds must seem much stronger there being surrounded by the winds and the waves.
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I've written from contest prompts for my own enjoyment as well or sometimes I start and don't finish before they close. lol
I enjoyed the read full of its equisite imagery. Sonnet on...
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Thank you so very much! Many years ago I was so lucky as to see Alaska, and never lucky enough to share any part of the experience. Thank you or the lovely commment! It makes me smile that someone else has also liked to just take the prompts and run, and forget the contest! I don't feel so alone!
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What a wonderful experience that must have been and remembering the magic through the young eyes that gazed upon it.
Who says we have to enter the contest? lol It's more about the writing but I have to admit the cups are nice too. lol
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Beautiful piece here. I never would have guessed this was a word prompt, which is the highest compliment I can give this piece.
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Thank you! It was a remarkable experience: I've rarely done things that drew from a word prompt. Thank you dearly!
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An excellent sonnet and your use of the prompts was remarkable, it was a shame that only free verse was acceptable as this would have stood a good chance of the gold!
All the best.
Sue
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Thank you dearly! The judge said only free verse, so I just did it for my own enjoyment: after all what the boss wants is what he wants! I'm glad it made you smile!
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Oh, this is a most excellent sonnet! No question! "paravail" sent me to the dictionary... a superb poem--don't know if I completely follow the Author's Notes, but no matter, I loved it.
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I sent YOU to the dictionary!? That's a first! I just did it for fun and not for the contest. When I read the phrase Northern Lights it brought things back to me, and for my own sake I just had to see if I could get a sonnet out of it. I've never used that much of a word prompt before, it felt something a bit like doing a NY Times crossword puzzle (I used to do them together for fun with a friend long ago), and playing scrabble, besides writing a poem. Most odd.
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As always with your poetry I found this poem to be captivating and a delight to read. Bravo!
Love,
Amera
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Thank you dearly! I always look forward to your poetry and your comments! Love,
Purrs
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Love It! Bravo!
Nice to see your back...It's been awhile...I understand why...yet, your poems are always such an inspiration to me, so forgive me, if I say, regardless of the circumstances...I'm so very glad "your back"...
Best Always, My Friend,
A. L. O'Prunty
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Thank you very dearly. It means so much that I'm missed, you have no idea how much!
Best always, Friend!
Purrs
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I'd love to hear more about your Alaskan adventure - I'll bet that was really something!
It's beautiful and quite stirring what you did with the prompts. I do So like your style........
ya All~Ways,
~ Jan ~
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Thank you dearly. It felt odd to use so many prompts. Thank you so much: I was trying to get something moving out of all of these diverse things. Hugs!
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Do you mind sharing the link from the contest that inspired you? Sounds interesting, and I'd like to check the others out!
's ya back!
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I quite love the content.. very much so. I do think it would work better as a free verse piece, though. The rhyming distracts a bit. But where you've gone with the prompts is first-rate!
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I agree with you: I simply cannot bear writing free verse though.
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