Ceiba (Silk-Cotton Tree)

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By onemorething

Mon, 25 Jul 2022
  • 2872 reads
21 comments
 

'Andromache: If only I were frightened. Fear has long been normal. The heart is slow to unlearn what it learnt long ago.' Seneca's Trojan Women.

 

The New World barbet makes a last metrical song

of a dying sun

from the bough of a silk-cotton tree;

the first tree, Yaxche,

tall and broad,

a gamp and shade.

 

A chiffon of web, moonwhitened,

flossed between stems,

earns its southern emerald moth,

in bright flailwing, but frailed to fade --

though never having given much thought 

to death,

not living long enough to tire 

of life;

when this suffering arrives,

it is swift and unexpected.

 

Are you afraid? I am not.

A part of me, I'll admit,

is drawn to it. 
 

The night ripples,

winds itself around,

around and around

the trunk,

revels in its thorns.

 

This is a tree for darkness:

weaned on gloom, 

ghostbloom - as food only 

for the dead and flickershadow bats;

thieves who'd steal the breath,

hot, from your lips.

Here lurks Ixtab,

a cradle for her old bones.

 

I am not afraid. Are you? 

A part of me, I'll admit, 

speaks this language.

 

But by the sapbeat from our barbet's first call

of morning-hope, the dazed moth's struggle

beneath the secretive spider's hungry smile,

perhaps the last giant battle

is where all our hearts labour

in their unlearning. 

 

 

Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kapok_or_silk_cotton_tree_(Ceiba_pentandra)_growing_by_a_vil_Wellcome_V0043228.jpg

Certificate 18
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by lenchenelf on

Wistful, perhaps melancholy in observation, your internal rhymes, and use of language are such a treat to read aloud. Super.

Best as always

Lena x

 

Submitted by onemorething on

A little melancholy, yes, but that's my sometimes nature. Thanks so much for reading it and your very lovely comment! xx

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

I keep reading this - it's completely hypnotic. Because I'm ignorant, I googled Yaxche and Ixtab, after which I was even more hypnotised. A lovely piece of work. 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks airyfairy! Am glad you enjoyed it. Yes, I suppose I could have referenced those, but it seemed a little stark to me to do that somehow, in this case. 

 

Submitted by airyfairy on

No surprise - this stunning piece of work is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day! Please do share/retweet if you enjoyed it too. 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you! Very chuffed indeed! 

 

Submitted by marandina on

Beautiful shades of light and dark. Steeped in myth and legend. Tis a wondrous thing :) 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks so much, Paul! Happy you read and enjoyed it. :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Didn't find it melancholic, but that made it the more scary. Hypnotic, yes. But mostly seductive, the rhythm. It reminded me of the delicate ferociousness of a spider's hunger, the gentleness of it wrapping its prey as your words wrap the reader in the thought of death as a good thing. Really, really, really good :0)

I didn't know about that goddess either. am still not sure what I think about her. Is so very different from how we look at this. Has sort of turned me upside down !

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Di, pleased you like it. I almost didn't include her (Ixtab) because, for one, I thought it might be too direct, but also she is a questioned figure - possibly a misattribution of some sort. But I decided that her darkness was important to the poem (she is supposed to hide in the trunk of the tree) and I guess I'm interested in the sense that how we perceive these things has its own social, historical and cultural contexts. And if she is real then better her than the unconsecrated ground approach. Maybe the way to see her is as non-judgemental rather than 'supportive' of suicide. That's how I understand her anyway. Mind you, I might still remove her from the poem. Will give it a week or so and decide. :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is breathtakingly good, and as lenchenelf says, a real treat to read aloud. Would love it if you could do a soundcloud link for us? Very well deserved golden cherries!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you! Glad you liked it. Oh yes, I will have a go at the weekend. 

 

Submitted by celticman on

takes the breath away. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thank you CM. 

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

A poem that is both expressive and moving.

Jenny. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ah, thanks Jenny. :)

 

Submitted by blighters rock on

Lovely and raw, a proper poem that feels like it was written in one blast

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Glad you liked it and thanks for reading it. Yes, one blast, but not one draft. :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh, thanks so much! What a sparkling end to the week! :)

 

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

I looked up Yaxche and Ixtab too. Read this a few times. It's very clever. The way it twists. Loved it.