Fusion

~ qbit ~ 17 Comments

I blew up last night
while you were asleep.
Between your soft breaths
my fuse was lit –
twelve seconds – not much
time to run away
from myself to safety.

An unstable charge
That has no out but in,
Its umbilical reactor
Collapsing in hot fusion
Of your skin and mine,
Where you dreamt
The center of the sun.

 

From Charley’s “Casting Bricks” challenge “Destruct”
Charley in bold, mine follows.

Renga – We Were Wanton (qbit/Jilly)

~ qbit ~ 66 Comments

“Human teeth contain a kind of poison, for they dim the brightness of a mirror when bared in front of it and also kill the fledglings of pigeons.” – Pliny The Elder, “Natural History” 79 CE

 

So feckless to smile at birds along the river,
Of course we knew that we were wanton

Splitting innocence with inured jaws,
Hawking the feathers caught in our teeth.

Unable to face our hunger, plunder,
Our eyes dim our necessity,

Denying our faces, averting our senses,
We leap into the decadent watercourse

White and fanged, the rapids of history
Tears us to ruins

Rise, we sink to rise again;
Birds chatter at our decay.

The currents of time wash out our bones
The sun pristine over the primal estuary

Stripped of all but naked truth
Ancient words take flight

Magnificat, the mother song of creatures,
St. Francis delirious with canticle

Counterpoint, drifting up and downstream,
Reflecting sinners, spawning saints

 

 

 
Conspirators: qbit, Jilly
qbit’s Renga Challenge – We Were Wanton
For Jilly’s November Casting Bricks

Renga Challenge – We Were Wanton

~ qbit ~ 4 Comments

“Human teeth contain a kind of poison, for they dim the brightness of a mirror when bared in front of it and also kill the fledglings of pigeons.” – Pliny The Elder, “Natural History” 79 CE

So feckless to smile at birds along the river,
Of course we knew that we were wanton

[Your couplet…]

[Repeat 5x]

 

 

Administration, Thoughts, Plots, Plans &tc:

Proposed as a Renga of unstructured couplets for two people, but certainly fun if folks want to do one with more people, although then we’d probably want 20 couplets instead of 10.

I’m hoping that by keeping each writer to two lines, our push/pull on each other stays strong, but leaves enough room to develop a new idea, pivot, etc.

PLEASE SIGN UP IN THE COMMENTS BELOW, and we will work out logistics and kick off the working versions in another post.

Group Renga for Jilly’s November Casting Bricks Challenge

More background and thoughts on Regna: here.

Άνάθεμα (Anathema)

~ qbit ~ 25 Comments

It’s never about birds in poetry;

it is about our inadequate,
marrow-filled bones that
weigh us down
reminding us of the immediacy
of the dust.

It’s never about stars in poetry;

It is about drinking from the night
As from the floodwaters of Noah –
Watching the Ark pull from shore
Without you. At least you
Will not die of thirst,
Those receding lights
Your final comfort.

From Jilly’s November “Casting Bricks”
Jilly in bold, my abomination follows.

I learned the nightjar whip-poor-will

~ qbit ~ 25 Comments

I learned the nightjar
Whip-poor-will
Can sense a soul departing,
Its wing chord
Precedes the darkness –
A nighthawk shadow
Hunting down the light
Like prey.

Does it carry us then
Through the sidereal night
To the end of stars?
Where black as diamonds
Carbon sings its last,
And wings fold tight in a
Last dive past gravity –
Our final compact
With certainty.

 

 

For Wednesday Poetry Prompts