A poem in short words?
Why not give it a try?
Why should I?
What do you want to say?
In truth, I don't know.
The sky is blue. There is no snow.
There should be snow.
A drought, you think?
This land is like a thing used up,
thin bare bones of trees
and not a cloud to be seen.
No clouds?
Not a one.
Well, take heart, the snow will come.
Will it?
It's bound to, don't you think?
I don't know. The earth has changed.
Change can be good.
Not this change, I think.
Don't yield to grief, just think...
Of what?
Of joy -- the joy that was,
The joy that is to come.
A star will blaze;
A child will be born.
Hope will be born. Hope can't help being born.
Hope should be white and moist
A slow melt down to the roots of plants;
This blue sky mocks, I think.
But, yes, I will hope -- for snow, for peace,
For the flow of streams,
for new green growth and the end of fear and want.
You know the myth?
Hope is what stayed in the box
When the bad things got out.
Yet, hope with no cause is a sad, doomed thing.
Hope is what it is.
It will not stay lost.
It is the first, faint light in the dark,
The last of the lights to go out.
It is the gaze that looks up,
Hope is what binds us to this world.
Then let's drink to hope.
This is awesome. It reminds me how much I long for a white Christmas this year. Bring on the snow all ready! These few flakes drifting down occasionally isn't cutting it! Brilliant job on this!
ReplyDeleteKathy
http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com
Thanks, Kathy. I'd settle for a few flakes at this point. It's like summer out here, or early autumn. Come on and snow, damn it!
DeleteNo snow needed here for a blessed and happy Christmas...but MY favorite part of this lovely poem is that HOPE is always there and always looks up.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jo. Without the snow pack, the forests will be so vulnerable to out-of-control fires come spring. I will hope and keep on hoping for the preservation of this beautiful land.
DeleteTruly wonderful AND great for the season- Hope is the best
ReplyDeleteThanks, Laura. Hope really is what keeps us going.
DeleteLovely. We desperately need snow, but we need hope even more.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Christmas will bring us luck to add to our hope.
DeleteI'll drink to that. Well done.
ReplyDeletehttp://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Thanks, Joyce.
DeleteJust one question. Is there anything you don't do well?
ReplyDeleteMy math teachers all thought I was cognitively challenged. I also have no sense of direction and very little visual memory. In fact, there are lots of things I suck at.
DeleteThanks so much for the challenging prompt. I wasn't at all sure I could do it but it has made me think about choosing words carefully. I suspect every writer gets caught in multi-syllable sloppiness from time to time.
Single-syllable beauty!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much.
DeleteWOW! I was too intimidated by this challenge to even try, but you nailed it! LOVE this! :-)
ReplyDeleteI was intimidated at first. I bet you could do it, too.
Deletethe dog ran down the road with rain on his feet
ReplyDeleteand ice and teeth in his mind
will it be duck or could it be a bone
in a sock
or a lump of coal to chew when the snow does come for real.
It's a sock with no bone,
ReplyDeletejust a lone sock
to carry home.
the man
ReplyDeletelost a sock
while on a roof
with deer.
with a lone sock
he had to go home
and left coals
while milk grew bad.
Lone coal in sock
Deletelacks warmth.
Roof with no deer,
nor man in red suit,
What's left?
Just stink
Of milk gone bad
Very beautiful poem! It flows so well that you don't even notice the words are all one syllable, and your vocabulary is beautifully varied. I'm sorry I missed this challenge.
ReplyDeleteI also love the images you chose, especially Pandora.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elaine.
ReplyDelete