“There is a human wildness held beneath the skin that finds all barriers brutishly unbearable”
– Jim Harrison (Day Four – 28 Days of Unreason)
She collects whispers from the menagerie,
Breathes the restless prowling
Back to me.
Who is this silkwife – spinning threads of touch
From the tangled desire
of moths?
My arms swing her up in their trawl –
She knows catch and release,
The leap of endolphins.
I can imagine the hope for catch and release on the part of the one caught.
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Oh love the metaphor of catch and release…
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Thank you!
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And you did find the bliss inside… sneaky 😉
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Great quote: Love the use of a silkie; never heard of the term “silk wife”. Such sensual compassion in this quadrille; really enjoyed it
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Thank you!
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I admire that imagery of the silkwife, and this line is gorgeous:
Breathes the restless prowling
Back to me.
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Thank you so much!
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The term silkwife is new to me. I loved your poem; wondered about endolphins (endorphins maybe?)
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I made up silkwife. And yes, endorphins! (I made up endolphins too). Wasn’t sure if that was going to be hard to connect.
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Ooooo, silkwife. I want to collect and savor that word. So delicate and binding all at once. Just wonderful!
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Thanks!
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Fantastic inventive poem. Love the last stanza with the endolphins swimming by.
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Thank you!
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Nice poem but I don’t understand why it is so difficult for you to follow the prompt?
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Well, we are poets, right? So I tried to paint a picture or feeling of bliss. Can I show bliss, or say bliss without using the specific word? If you think of it, even more of a challenge, no?
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Nope. The challenge clearly states to use the word bliss in your poem. Plain and simple. That’s why it’s a challenge. I am a poet as well yet…I can follow a prompt. Easy peasy… Being a staffer for dVerse, I frequently get annoyed when people don’t follow the prompts. If you didn’t follow one of my prompts, I’d delete your link. But Bjorn is a good man and not a die hard to the letter retired engineer.
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OK, sure. But I *did* write a bliss poem, or at least I hoped I did. I could see deleting it if I ignored the prompt entirely, but I was looking for the heart of bliss, as it were, if I could find it. No? Much harder, and hopefully more challenging. Not trying to ignore the prompt at all.
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But.you.didn’t.use.the.word. You can show bliss and actually use the word. There is no argument here. Just use the fricking word in your poem. And bliss is not always blissful. Please, use the word or post on a different day. It is so simple, even my husband can do it. This is a regular prompt. It is not an option., I’m not saying anymore. Youc an argue all you like but you Didn’t Use The Word…..
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Sorry. Yes, we’re all writing poems here so we’re poets but the prompt says we must include the word “bliss” for this post. No matter how good the writing is, if it doesn’t includ the word or a form of the word, it shouldn’t be posted here. Add the word or wait and post for OLN.
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Ah….Am feeling blissful reading it now with the acrostic noted 🙂
You truly have a way with words.
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Gee, and I’ve got an Acrostic ready to go!!
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BTW, I want to be a good citizen, not trying to be difficult. Just asking you to consider how someone might approach the prompt and the challenge in a creative and expressive way.
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Love your work, Q, and you are always, always creative and expressive. But Toni has a point. The Q is ALL about two rules and only two rules: precisely 44 words, and the use of some form of the word given. Love your rebel poet heart, but no need to argue the point.
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To be more pithy (like the Quadrille itself), I guess I’m just saying you can be true to you, AND the Q. 😉
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So here’s the way I like to cheat:
Turn the word into something new by inserting other letters. I’ve done it tons of times. I even considered it today. There’s something in some of us that just demands to be counted separate from the crowd, even when we want to be part of it as well. It’s just a personality trait, that’s all. Social anti-socialism, if you will — present in so many gifted people, I would say.
Anyway, with “bliss,” I could turn it into “bl(ack-k)iss” or “bl(ue-h)iss.” Or both! There, I’ve completely abandoned all normal connected definitions of the word but still not technically broken THE rule.
Or if you want to go even further, how about:
(reha)b lis(ten to thi)s
😛
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Yes, thanks. That’s a very creative solution.
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Nope. We all “approach the prompt and th challenge in a creative and expressive way” as we include the word “bliss” or a form of the word in our post. You did not include “bliss” so this is not a “creative and expressive” write for this particular prompt.
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This line gives me goosebumps:
“She collects whispers from the menagerie”
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Beautiful descriptive poem. And full of your creativity. Much enjoyed, even without the word.
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I got it all worked out, Q, my man! Go back in and make the following letters bold… and possibly in color… B – L – I – S – S. It’s so… like utterly cosmic! You’ve actually hidden the word within your poem. Only those of us with greater super powers don’t need the bolding (I know, verbing a noun… or is it nouning a verb?). Anyway… that silkwife and those endolphins, man…. I see them at night. Usually Sunday night.
All seriousness aside… great writing. Be a poet.
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There ya go! Mess with the spacing a little, and you’ve got an acrostic. 😉
And Charley, nouns should ALWAYS be verbed, and vice-versa.
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Wow. Hats off to Charlie on that one!
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BTW… I thought his poem went exactly with the Jim Harrison quote he referenced. One might actually hear a Frosty echo in it, “Something there is….”
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Great solution!
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Thank you! It was meant in all facetiouness. 🙂
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Good for you Charley!
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*Ignoring the above BS, rebel-that-I-am*
Your choice of Harrison quotes is pure genious for what you have written & accomplished here. Yes, I really get a kick out of your created words – endolphins!!! However, it is the first stanza that I most appreciate. Poem onward, my friend. ~J
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I missed day four of the Harrison quotes. In fact, I think I missed the first seven days. I’m gonna have to go back and look at those. Love your take on it. Very creative, as always. Endolphins was my favorite.
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Thanks. I really appreciate it.
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Every time I visit your blog, I am completely blown away. You are easily one of my favorite poets. This is incredible.
These are my favorites:
“She collects whispers”
“Breathes the restless prowling”
the whole second stanza
“She knows catch and release”
the last line
Oh, please. ALL OF IT!!!
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Wow. Thank you so very much. I really appreciate it.
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Your poem was so good that I had no recall about having come here from a prompt site. I just totally forgot and never bothered to look for the word. Outstanding work, man. Always.
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Thanks for the reblog!!!!
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Love that catch & release and a masterful wordplay in the final line” endolphine. Wow.
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That’s an amazing title and opening stanza, with ‘whispers from the menagerie and breathing the ‘restless prowling’. I also love the silkwife
‘spinning threads of touch
From the tangled desire,
of moths’.
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Cheeky, cheeky rebel. That unrestrained, surrealist touch — astounding and unapologetic. Wordplay and imagery — original and interesting. 🙂
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Love the poem. No doubt about it. So with the genius you have. I don’t understand why you don’t use it with the prompt when you are posting on the site that, this time, has a required prompt? Rebellion? I don’t think so. In my mind you’re taking advantage of a site that many folks love and relate to and treasure the feedback from its readers, without being a full-fledged participant, reading others’ works widely with comments and following the prompts as others do. My two cents. Now I’m done.
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All understood. Without having giving it really any thought, I had interpreted that the word was meant as a “theme”, so presumed I was in the spirit of the challenge. Clear now that it is meant to be a very specific part of the rubric.
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Great! So next quadrille, I look forward to your post using the word! Have you read and commented on others’ posts? It’s fun to see how diverse they are within the challenge! 😊🌻
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I am caught up to Walter Marks (#27), so still working through everything from overnight and this AM!
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I’m with grandkids all day, so reading tonight. No time for Poetics today🙁
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I did the Acrostic for BLISS in Bold/Red (Thanks Charlie!)
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YES. Acrostic awesomeness.
This little trick has added another layer, also.
“siLkwife” is “sigh, like wife”
and “tangled desIre” becomes “tangled, desperate ire” for me.
Love it.
I also feel like a small army of red ants has now invaded the silky perfection of her web. 😉
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LOL!
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I like the solution of the “red” bliss –
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Ugh, I cannot even believe the blatant rudeness of some of the above comments. I thought poetry was about creativity, not rule enforcement. Real life has enough bureaucratic nonsense, let’s not let it invade the nice place.
I say post your poem and if they want to delete it they can, but you got what was important out of the exercise- A Poem! Personally, I often use a prompt word and then it gets edited out because I usually do dozens of edits. Sometimes I forget which word started me off in the first place but if someone has a problem with the outcome because of a technicality they can go screw. Some humans love to make rules and then be self-righteous and pedantic. Other humans love free expression. No pencil-pusher is allowed to rant beneath my art. You are more patient than me, haha!
ANYWAY, I love your inventiveness with words and the pure BLISS in “tangled desire of moths.”
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Wow…silk wife, endolphins, and acrostic BLISS!!! Great poem, good discussion 🙂
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Catch and release if perfect and the whole poem is spot on from your creative flow.
I sensed I influenced you to do the acrostic bold red letters of ‘BLISS’? I love this work by you my friend. 🙂
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Thanks!
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You welcome my friend. 🙂 These Quadrille challenges are so amazing and cool.
I’m hoping tomorrow dVerse has a ‘Post anything blog’. 🙂
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I think the next Open Link Night is a week from tomorrow. Every other Thursday.
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Hmmm…??? They usually do Open Link Night right at the end of this month. I’ll keep checking tomorrow and see what they put out. And if not, then I’ll see the week after.
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Charlie, Imaginary Garden With Real Toads has an open link thing every Tuesday, called the Tuesday Platform. Yesterday’s is still open:
http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-tuesday-platform_29.html
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I clicked on the link. I just posted a poem on there. 🙂 Thank you so much. 🙂
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My pleasure, Charlie! Toads is an awesome community, very welcoming and open, just like dVerse, and with lots of awesome poet crossover between the two. Be sure to make some poetic visits to others’ poems. Some amazing writers over there, too. 🙂
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I’ll be sure to visit hopefully today or if not, tomorrow. 🙂
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You are correct, Sir. Open Link Night is every other Thursday, and we had one last Thursday some tomorrow will be some kind of fabulous Meet The Bar prompt. 🙂
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I enjoyed this and like that you used the Songs of Unreason quotation.
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I like that you found the word bliss in this and highlighted it for us. It is a lovely poem indeed. PS if you google silk wife, you may get a surprise.
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Thanks! And I will Google silk wife!
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Come to think… I liked it better in plain black and white… with no bold lettering. That’s what I think.
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Having gone through all the comments I sit in utter disbelief! You did so well with the poem! To harp and insist on ‘The Rules’ when you’ve clearly done so well, giving the sense of bliss – the entire thing hums with it! To tell a creative – use the word or else! Oh please! You DID follow the prompt! I also, like Charley, liked the poem better without the red and bold. I appreciate you posting it again on OLN. Take the red out Qbit.
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Blissful!
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Thank you!
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Gosh such exquisite imagery in this!❤️
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Thanks!
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all these lovely lines so resonant with sound – silken dress moving as she walks, the whispering, the weaving, the splash of endolphins!. Of course the whole poem is just one bowl me over love lyric ❤
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Thank you. Fortunately for me, that’s what she said too!
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She sounds like a keeper! Beautiful quadrille 😊
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And again you go back to last year and I see why. I remember this so clearly (including all the strife). You wrote some great stuff last year. You wrote some great stuff this year.
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