These are linked poems created week by week for a year, inspired by the book No Choice But To Follow, and the poets therein who did it first.

Friday 28 February 2014

February #4

Off the Rails

Good girl mostly,
dreams herself
light and white,
fairy-like.

Shivers, though, 
in the night,
when the red
rises inside ...

Or when the black
swirls around her
and she sinks
beneath its tide.

The demons,
the dragons,
the serpents 
invite her.

Tensing her mind,
she locks out
their fearful 
seductions.

So it goes
for the years
of her growing.
Then, explosion.

The rushing red
can't be contained,
the deadly black
won't be denied.

They froth forth
in cataclysmic
eruptions —
then subside.

Slipping and sliding
right off the rails,
she plunges
down the cliff.

Revelation:
she floats on
an ocean
of wondrous calm.

The voices
were always her own.
She opens herself
to their song.

— Rosemary Nissen-Wade

8 comments:

  1. This is a great poem to read before bedtime to induce interesting dreams. I love it.

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  2. may we all learn to open to the many voices that are our own song.

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  3. I much enjoyed this. Such a great ending after all the struggles.

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  4. Replies
    1. As someone who has "gone off the rails" more than a few times...I love how this poem resolves...it's wonderfully told.

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  5. I loved the ending and how this built to a crescendo then subsided to a peaceful calm.

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  6. Thank you all so much for the favourable comments. I was disconcerted to have produced something so entirely metaphorical, which is not my usual style. Your enthusiasm is very reassuring. :)

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