Our swan meets Nikki Papandreou,
The Greek Olympic diver
Eye to eye and nose to beak
They keep their poise and watch each other
She waddles to the edge of grace
Submerged, he breasts for air
Wings cut through air,
Arms slice through water
How fierce the thrill
That twists as one?
How strong the force
That separates them?
Jackknifed time entangles
Their fall as flight through space
Becomes reunion of bone and skin and
Hand and feather, a merging and emerging
Yet such ecstasy, transgression,
Cannot queen the body long
This body’s reaching out for that
Still point, where rise turns into fall
The ancient moment, amphibian mind –
Zeno’s paradox suspended
A moment free of up, of down, all
Movement frozen in a blue eternity
Conspirators: qbit, sarasouthwest
qbit’s Renga Challenge – Swan Dive
For Jilly’s October Casting Bricks
qbit 
Eye to eye and nose to beak
they keep their poise and watch each other
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awesome. Working.
LikeLike
She waddles to the edge of grace
Submerged, he breasts for air
LikeLike
Wings cut through air,
Arms slice through water
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m at work, so will be a bit. OK, we’re through the first section, and we have our swan and our diver, engaged with each other and propelled into the world in some parallel way. Do they need each other? Are they two sides of the same coin? What can they learn from each other? We shall see, LOL!
LikeLike
I like the ideas…
LikeLiked by 1 person
How fierce is the thrill
That twists them as one?
LikeLike
Apologies. Had to make soup.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So, I was grabbing quick glimpses of this between classes today and for a minute there I thought the swan & diver were going to make soup… haha! Enjoying the reading 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is still a possibility!
LikeLiked by 1 person
What happened here?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Employment interfering with writing, lol!
LikeLike
Bad job! Bad, bad job!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ahahaha! My thoughts exactly!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ok, posted my lines.
LikeLiked by 1 person
How strong is the force
That separates them?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oooh, very good. We have some kind of deep push pull. Possibly at the deepest level of physics. The strong and weak nuclear force. What holds us together but keeps us from collapsing.
LikeLike
Jackknifed time entangles
Their fall as flight through space
LikeLike
That was my lines btw. I will ponder on the soup situation…
LikeLike
Becomes reunion of bone and skin and
Hand and feather, a merging and emerging
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK!!!! Wow, we have something pretty interesting going on here. Somehow we have to complete the dive! We have bird/man merging and emerging in/out of some twisting entanglement. Sure. The rest is obvious, right? LOL!
LikeLike
But what’s the motivation? And how do we finish this? How many lines have we got left?
LikeLike
Motivation — I have no idea, LOL! Will give that some thought. As originally set up, we’d have four couplets left — two for me and two for you, with you ending it all with a splash (or without? A clean dive? A splish?) But up to you. Can we answer to the reader why they should care about the fate of our swanperson in eight lines?
LikeLike
Let’s give it a go. There’s a bit of Icarus in this mix, and definitely a fairytale precursor. Swans are powerful symbols. In England they are all officially owned by the queen, bizarrely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh man, I’m going to try and use that last tidbit!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
http://www.royalswan.co.uk/
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is way hard. I’ve crossed out more than 30 attempts.
LikeLike
We can do this! 😊
LikeLike
A reader’s thought… what is it that emerges from the merger? Ugly duckling? Swan Maiden? Something that breaks the bondage of being ‘owned’ by a Queen? Just a few late night musings.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice musings, Jilly.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I was trying much of that too, but I couldn’t make it flow or seem natural. How about this?
Yet such ecstasy, transgression,
cannot queen the body long
LikeLike
This body’s reaching out for that
Still point, where rise turns into fall
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ah, nice.
LikeLike
Thank you. This is something I would never have written on my own. It’s quite exciting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, it pulls both writers, one swan, one Greek, out of their normal routines!
LikeLike
The ancient moment, amphibian mind –
Zeno’s paradox suspended
OK, over to you for the big finish, LOL!
LikeLike
Now I have to google Zeno’s paradox.
LikeLike
Ahaha!
LikeLike
A moment free of up, of down, all
Movement frozen in a blue eternity
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’re posted! When I can get to a better editor, I’ll add some white space at the end. That came out beautifully!
LikeLike
Is that big enough?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oooh! Yes! Splashdown!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will update the post in a bit.
LikeLike
It’s OK, isn’t it? There’s an image there that works. It was great doing it, too. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s perfect! And completely seamless! I love the progression and way it just gets closer and closer to that last line. Funnily, my favorite line is eye to eye and nose to beak. It creates such personality and tension. Thank you for participating! Throw out a line and we can do it again!
LikeLike
I think the poem arcs to mirror the image, yes. We are fab, aren’t we?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes! We were the swan and the diver, truly.
LikeLike
That was the best part wasn’t it. That the poem was us.
LikeLike
I’m definitely up for doing it again!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Get us started!
LikeLike
Tomorrow!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oh, this is brilliant! You two really worked well on this; two of my favorite poets.
LikeLiked by 1 person
OK, my friend, I’ve posted a challenge! https://fmmewritespoems.wordpress.com/2017/10/13/renga-challenge-1/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let’s go! Post a sara/qbit version and I’ll get started.
LikeLike
Excellent! 😎😎😎🥀🥀🥀
LikeLike