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notes on writing a poem when you can't think of a title

I had a dream
but for all I know it was another
lifetime ago,
and it leaves me with feelings undefined
with welts on my back from an unknown
assailant, my discipline is slow,
turning over and over
inside my uneasy grave,
I am dizzy, faint with the loss of blood
going to and fro my misplaced head,
as if taken out of context
and plucked from a three-dimensional
cardboard reality

as if I were carrion of every known experience
now awakening
in a torture chamber that looks much like the Sistine Chapel,
paint dripping from the ceiling, nails flying off the walls,
the floor oozing a spiral galaxy,
stargazer lilies permeate the air,
I hear a song about Jesus being a sailor
sung by a seagull swooping down
with these words:

"There's feathers sticking from your ears, eyes and lips,
your hair is plaited with wagging tongues
your hunger is rising with the sun
be not concerned, Cariad
you haven't killed the songbird,
you're just learning to fly and
sometimes when the moon is full
it takes three days
to write a poem."



— Kailashana, Sep 25, 2009

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Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

Hi Neopoets, sometimes it is

Hi Neopoets, sometimes it is good to explain a poem. In this case I shall. I've been dreaming again, after a few years of mostly blissful dreamless sleep and the words "be not concerned, Cariad, you haven't killed the songbird, you're just learning to fly" came to me as I was falling asleep. For a change, I didn't forget them because I came downstairs and typed it on my computer. It sat there for 3 days. A dear man, with whom, in another life, we may have been lovers, or we could be now, if our lives were different, calls me *Cariad*. The rest of the poem is my synesthesia, something that is a constant since my enlightening, or Oneness experience. I once seemed to possess it and now am thoroughly possessed, amoung the dispossessed--having had the wild experience of being judged suitable carrion by the vultures of Hinckley, Ohio in 2005. (They return every year on the Ides of March.) http://cleveland.about.com/od/clevelandareaparks/p/buzzards.htm ~A
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

Oh, there’s a huge price,

Oh, there's a huge price, my friend... the cost is one's life... the one that lives (resides) inside one's head---our very thoughts of who we think we are or aren't, who we think the other is or isn't, what we believe in or don't...what we think reality is or isn't. The only thing that doesn't change is awareness itself--our new identity. Carrion indeed. You've heard "when pigs fly"? Well, it's like that poor donkey in your tale *Carrion and Cariad*... lol. Hugs to all, Life is Good, regardless of appearances, eh? ~A
Seren

Seren

16 years 8 months ago

Dearest Anna

Life is good, always ... as is your poetry this is wonderful poignant and vivid Anna ... I could see the paint dripping down ... And Jesus out of the mouth of a seagull lol that is like the priests pants unforgetable lol (hugs) Love and higgest bugs Jayne x x x
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

Jayne, have you read

Jayne, have you read Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach? For you a song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgkk0Hdwmo8 Btw, Jesus was a sailor was a reference to Leonard Cohen's *Suzanne*.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqu3U05tkAw
Seren

Seren

16 years 8 months ago

What a beautiful song it was

What a beautiful song it was sooo Awesome Anna !! the clouds hung for poets eyes ... Awww thats just too beautiful and nice and calming for the middle of the night made me relax... and doh I should have clicked to the reference to suzanne lol Barry(o) mentioned it(suzanne) the other day in a comment to me bit slow tonight ... (hugs) thanks for showing me that song am going to download I can see me thrashing it hugs of love Jayne x x
Nordic cloud

Nordic cloud

16 years 8 months ago

Oh Anna Anna this is simply

Oh Anna Anna this is simply wonderful stuff, what words can one think up to say something about a dream, a dream so richly endowed with strange thoughts and glimts of known divine thoughts, mad-cap seagulls and flying nails. I loved the 'trip' you give me here its thrilling and with its contents spilling everywhere in my mind I find it far from a cardboard reality, its a dream reality all of its own and wonderful and I wouldn't wish it otherwise. Your with love dear Anna from Ann
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

It’s been rough sailing

It's been rough sailing sometimes, Ann. Quite painful as a matter of fact. The price of poetry is blood and marrow, feather and fur, howls and gnashing of teeth. Love, Anna
Candlewitch

Candlewitch

16 years 8 months ago

Dear Anna

This is wonderful... you must have sweated blood in the writing, because it is so profound. My favorite lines are: “There’s feathers sticking from your ears, eyes and lips, your hair is plaited with wagging tongues your hunger is rising with the sun be not concerned, Cariad you haven’t killed the songbird, you’re just learning to fly and sometimes when the moon is full it takes three days to write a poem.” I looked up the word, cariad and learned something new today :) Thanks! The title of this poem dragged me in and I'm so glad it did. You have a beautiful mind. Always, Cat
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

Hi Cat, those lines: the

Hi Cat, those lines: the first part an image, the second is the words that came to me and the last line just finished itself. ;-) When I'm in a meditative groove, I always smell lilacs or stargazer lilies, sometimes roses.. ~A
hugo la rosa

hugo la rosa

16 years 8 months ago

Dear Kailashana:

You write the poem in the style of great American Poet- Writers, as if a momentous occasion were taking place, yes, it's the transformation of you taking place in all dimensions. It seemed a dream, but dreams have a reality of their own. They are another level of the reality that assails us on a daily basis, which one is truer, nobody knows. Great poem! Sincerely, Hugo