the secret she longed
to give away
was locked in truths
she couldn't say
~ hung in the hushed, snowy white, light of day ~
the icy words,
unspoken, clung:
unmelted snowflakes
on her tongue
note: first published in Shot Glass Journal (Muse-Pie Press) Issue #15, 2015.
A Puente (from the word 'bridge' in Spanish) is
a poetry form that uses a word bridge. The Puente, created by James
Rasmussen, is a poem consisting of three stanzas with the first and third being
equal in number of lines and the second serving as a bridge (puente) between
the two. The first and third stanzas should be related but different (though
they should share a common ground). This poetic form can be written in
free verse or rhyme. The bridge line should serve as the ending for the first
stanza and the beginning for the third. It is often delineated by a tilde (~).
To My Blog Followers - I have sorted my poems into the following categories:
To My Blog Followers - I have sorted my poems into the following categories:
Classical Form
Poetry
Japanese Inspired Poetry
Light Humorous Poetry
Poems About Childhood and Family
Poems About Nature
They can be accessed by scrolling down the side-bar/column to the right, to the heading entitled 'Poetry by Category' and clicking on the form.
Japanese Inspired Poetry
Light Humorous Poetry
Poems About Childhood and Family
Poems About Nature
They can be accessed by scrolling down the side-bar/column to the right, to the heading entitled 'Poetry by Category' and clicking on the form.
photo:
Sun Peaks, BC – H. Bourke
© 2017 Wendy Bourke
There is an interesting tension in the first part. Things we wish we could say, but when given it comes with too many attachments and unspoken truths. Entanglements.
ReplyDeleteThe second is for me the things probably best unsaid, the things that could destroy another or at least crush their spirit. It makes for an interesting contrast with the dainty little snowflakes on the tongue.
Interesting to think about wanting to give a secret away but not being able to. Sometimes those words just stick on the tongue, I think. And the secret remains secret! I enjoyed the form, Wendy.
ReplyDeletethe secret she longed
ReplyDeleteto give away
was locked in truths
she couldn't say
Truth obviously will impact on matters which otherwise are innocent enough to be revealed
Hank
Some truths are better not revealed. It has its pain, no doubt. How wonderfully the form holds the content here!
ReplyDeleteAah a challenging form.. trying to make a sentence work as an end and a beginning...will be experimenting soon!! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis form is wonderful to work with, the frozen image for those secrets that cannot be said. For me this made me think of the metoo as the flood of spring with all those frozen words that come at once.
ReplyDeleteSome arresting imagery at play here,
ReplyDeleteShe's very good at keeping a secret when even snowflakes don't melt on her tongue!
ReplyDeletelove this metaphor - so much better than stuck in throat - more ephemeral
ReplyDeleteLove this, the imagery here is incredibly alluring.. you have worked the form to perfection!❤️
ReplyDeleteI love the phrase here:
ReplyDeleteUnmelted snowflakes on her tongue
alluding to words unspoken. For me it's so genius how you came up with it. thanks.
Wonderful! Especially the unspoken words like melting snowflakes on her tongue. Bravo for sorting your poems into classifications, a task I likely will never have time for. Smiles. I am envious.
ReplyDeleteYou'd probably be surprised, Sherry, at how quick it is to sort poems into categories using labels. First I went through and identified the 'form' poems. Most of them I recognized as 'form' by memory and just pasted the label in. Same thing with the light/humorous poems. The other categories were a bit more time consuming. I stuck to one label per poem (so that viewers wouldn't be reading the same poem under multiple headings). After that I went into the label gadget under 'layout' - and pasted in the titles of the categories. They sort automatically after that. Probably 4 hours work - tops - to sort over 300 poems (though I know you have a much bigger body of work than that ~ smiles ~) I got started on this project because, eventually, I want to do a little book of poems that my grandsons inspired, to give to them as a keepsake, and it seemed like the easiest way to bring them together to sort through.
DeleteWhat a yummy form, Wendi (says a little voice that probably plans to steal it). I love the symmetry and the puente, which seems to work (if just a bit) like the pivot line in tanka.
ReplyDeleteThe poem itself reads like a detailed painting, and a very short movie--I can see the speaker tongue-tied and frustrated, wanting to let go of her secret, but stuck with carrying it.
I love the lines "unmelted snowflakes on her younger" very effective.
ReplyDeleteYour words are wonderful, collected into interesting thoughts!!! X got it just right for me.
ReplyDeleteInteresting form! Secrets unrevealed and stuck on her tongue..lovely words
ReplyDeleteAnother great one Wendy....secrets not revealed can sting our tongue....a cold feel to this matching that image.
ReplyDeleteI love the line about unmelted snowflakes on her tongue. And sometimes we promise to keep a secret, secret.
ReplyDeleteLove this Wendy. I like the melted snowflakes, the secret on her tongue. Enjoyed!
ReplyDelete