The wonderful poet Fireblossom gave us a choice of prompts today for Fireblossom Friday at the Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. The first of these was the Rhyme Royal, which has a rhyme pattern of a-b-a-b-b-c-c.
I tried it. I actually composed a 14-line bit of versification which came out like a cross between Rudyard Kipling and A.A. Milne.
Then I took a closer look at the pictures by Polish-American artist W.T. Benda, which Fireblossom offered as prompt for the free verse option, and, because of a tragedy in my family this week, found myself drawn to this assortment of masks and faces.
The resulting poem is not art. It is only marginally better than my attempt at a Rhyme Royal, but it expresses how I feel right now. While certainly not an expression of my life's beliefs and principles, it does paint a portrait of today.
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Władysław Benda
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grief and pain
and helplessness
which, over time,
might yet be dulled,
will never go away.
we wait
we pray
we scream
we say
we can’t go on...
and yet we do,
with help
from one another.
in a year,
or maybe more,
dull grief and pain
and helplessness
might chill
the everyday,
but masks
will hide
us from the world
12 comments:
You write of grief as a woman who knows it ... this is lovely Kay.
Masks sometimes help us to carry on with our life, to cpoe with reality...great lines...
Yes, we carry grief and the "masks we wear" do let us carry on. I SO know this feeling, Kay. These must be very sad days for your family.
I agree, Kay, that at the time it feels like the emotional pain will never end. But it gradually eases and one day you find you're laughing again at something silly. One never forgets, but eventually can move on.
Leslie
abcw team
I know you're going through a very difficult time right now, Kay. I'm so very sorry. Sending you warm aloha from Hawaii.
I think this is a most accurate portrayal of grief and the coping mechanisms we put in place to get us through the next year and a day.
You express here very well that sense of being frozen in time, of the world going on without us, that grief brings--I hadn't thought of the act of trying to behave normally as a mask, but it certainly is--and the words go right along with the Benda illustration. All my sympathies for the loss, Kay.
Masks have gotten a bad rap. Sometimes, a mask is just the thing to allow us to function in the world at times when we are wounded and hurting.
This is lovely and real, Kay.
I thought you would be on the way to Iceland now Kay? Maybe another week or two and it will be warmer though.
Enjoy and I hope you see lots of pinkies but you may not unless yougo into the mountains. Good luck.
Beautiful take, even if it is for tragic reasons. Sending best.
I feel the pain. Grief always reminds me of Handel Messiah, A man of sorrow and acquainted with...
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