Thursday, February 28, 2013

Ship on Fire

Image: Ivan Aivazovsky Wiki-images

Sharing at d'Verse Poetics: An Evening of Short Verse.

Wrote this earlier this week, but it seems to fit in well with the Short Verse theme. Can't really be called a Cinquain or Quintain as the rhyme scheme (a,a,a,b,b) doesn't really follow, although with minimal change to line 2 maybe could've been an English Quintain. No format in mind when written, was really just trying to sketch a picture with my words.

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Mockingbird


"Mockingbird upon the wire
sings his heart out with desire
and still he sits there all alone
without one song to call his own"


Kelvin S.M. 2012 "Resting" used with permission


















Multitudes of notes are learned,
octaves high to deeper trills,
casting forth in perfect pitch
keeping time, each refrain builds;
intent to sing each perfectly,
never noticing in youth--
galvanized, a local star,
building up a repertoire
ignoring just one basic truth:
relegating to this choice
deterred the chance to find his voice.

© Ginny Brannan 2013

For d'Verse Poetics: Dominant Impression in Artistic Description, hosted by Kelvin S.M., with recognition and special thanks to him for allowing us to choose one of his images as a source of inspiration!

Monday, February 18, 2013

Face Lift

Image: Wind of History, Jacek Yerka














We wrestle over muddied ruts
toward austere shell left long ago--
stone walls in ruins still surround
the disrepaired and ill-kempt grounds
while barren trees line up in rows.

The home endures like some grand dame
behind the rusted iron gate;
a once proud beauty so aloof,
now crows lie nesting ‘neath her roof…
long years abandoned, left to fate.

And yet her bones were built to last
untouched by age or weathered storm.
Each hollow room whispers a story,
thick dust belies her former glory
as we assess and then transform.

© Ginny Brannan 2013

Written for The Mag #156, image provided by Tess Kincaid. 
She provides image, we the story!

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Speed Dating


Written for The Mag #155--Image provided by Tess Kincaid. She provides the image, we the story!

Image: Joseph  Lorusso












dinner forgotten
basal instincts ignited
dessert served up hot

© Ginny Brannan 2013

Monday, February 4, 2013

Fighting Shadows
















“...A house divided against itself cannot stand”A.Lincoln

Between the darkness and the dawn
whirling dervish devils dance--
hear them cackle as they weave
 anxiety and fear to knots. There’s no reprieve
 from battles fought, even as the night moves on...

The raging storm was finally quelled
and in your words, a soothing balm
to calm a nation torn apart;
to reunite. The words instilled
a sense of hope with so much lost
at such high cost.  Not all agreed; small
seed of discontent became dissent
and in a rage a shot rang out…

The gift of eloquence is rare;
commanding presence rarer still.
yet in the shadow that you cast
two great armies had amassed…
So many people hated you for
changing lives accustomed to; yet when
surrender finally came you baffled them…
when punishment could be your claim
you sent them back to families
where they might heal and find some peace

…and from that shot that split the night
we hear your voice, we hear the call
to bear the standard that you bore.
through words that live forevermore:

“…With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right,  let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” A.Lincoln

©   Ginny Brannan 2013 

 *************************************************************************

I just finished reading the book "Killing Lincoln"by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard, an amazing story that speaks of such an intelligent man who bore the weight of Civil War on his shoulders, Lincoln was a visionary seeing well past the war, past what was to what could be. He is said to have suffered from melancholia, and was haunted by frequent nightmares, one of which vividly depicted his death a full two weeks before he was shot. 
This is kind of an experimental piece playing with Free Verse and internal rhyme. It starts with Lincoln quote, first stanza is a dreamscape to recognize the nightmares that haunted Lincoln, leading into two stanzas of based on true facts, the fourth stanza a call to follow, the fifth a partial quote from Lincoln's Second Inaugural a short time before he was shot.
*Original image by author taken at Gettysburg Battle Reenactments 2007

Sharing at d'Verse Poets Pub Open Link Night Week #83.