Wolves, blizzard

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By onemorething

Tue, 18 Jan 2022
  • 2421 reads
15 comments
 

An attempt at an imagistic poem (part ekphrastic, based on painting) for Top Tweet Tuesday on Twitter. 

 

Watch, where hare skin and bone cast

of the evernight of slick ice, 

earth greased where they roam

the dark wide and blood thin, 

a yearning of notes flung 

to the sky gods that sail

upon the high wind,

the moonquiet, moon

with its empty grin, watch, 

how though snowblind and lost,

the stars scatter at their call --

together, there is a way 

through the forest. 
 

 

Painting is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alfred_Wierusz-Kowalski_-_Wilki_podczas_zamieci.jpg

Certificate U
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by marandina on

"...sky gods that sail." Very beautiful and imagist :)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you Paul! :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Beautiful - and very chilly, both painting and poem! Did you ever read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase as a child?

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you! Glad you liked it. No, I didn't, but just looked it up and think I should read it now! :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

You absolutely must read it if you haven't!

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I love "a yearning of notes flung/to the sky" and "stars scatter with their call" shivery exciting :0)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ah thanks Di, I read something somewhere about folklore involving wolves eating the stars. I should look it up again. I'm glad you liked it. :)

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

Beautiful language. I too was particularly struck by the image of the stars scattering, so it's interesting what you say about wolves eating the stars. Also the last two lines, 'together there is a way through the forest' really evoked that image of the pack moving together. I'm fascinated by wolves, I'll watch anything on TV if it's got wolves moving in a pack! 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks airyfairy! Yes wolf packs are wonderful. Do you follow the Wolf Conservation Center on FB or Twitter - endless videos of wolves. Hard to stop watching them. Just looked it up again and it's in Scandinavian mythology that wolves 'devour the stars'. Also in the Rig-Veda, the wolf eats the quail which is a symbol of light, the wolf's mouth being night and the release from the wolf's jaws is dawn. Fabulous wolfish symbolism! 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations!

It's also our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day

Please share/retweet if you enjoy it as much as I did

 

Submitted by onemorething on

That's a very lovely and unexpected surprise! Thanks so much! Chuffed. 

 

Submitted by catherine poarch on

It's stunning. What a quietness to it. Words that stop you in your tracks. You've suggested the movement of the wolves with the pace. I like the slight repetition and the making of compound words.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks so much Catherine. Am so glad you enjoyed it and thought it was suitably wolfish! :)

 

Submitted by lenchenelf on

in the subtle shapes and images that weave and lope through the poem... a fine resolution; together we can make it through ...

Enjoyed

Lena x

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you! Yes, a little hope at the end, something to admire about wolves - the pack. Thanks for reading it. x