Lita's Random Poetry Challenge--Day One
46
Better Late Than Never As They Say
I read and write a lot of poetry, and love the challenge of it. For me, sometimes it is just there; sometimes I have to struggle with it. To those of you who have answered Lita's challenge, you've done beautiful work. It is a skill I admire. Writing poetry helps me condense thoughts and feelings on life and better understand it.
Loving Broken Things
A Poem
(I tried suggestions, but still couldn't get this to hold its shape. I hope it doesn't throw the rhythm off too much.)
Loving Broken Things
He brought to me a kitten lost in the storm that rose up in the night. Muddy, straggled fur and a limp hind leg with a meow like a cricket-- I nursed it through pneumonia and a broken leg.
A thing cannot help that it has been broken.
He brought to me the pieces of his Nana's broken vase, twenty-three pieces of crystal shattered. With glue and tweezers and a magnifying glass, rock steady as a surgeon, I healed the family heirloom.
A thing cannot help that it has been broken.
He brought to me his daughter child of another woman from his past broken by addictions ... all he could see in his blind red rage was a problem broken beyond any fixing.
Long tangled feathers, dark holes for eye sockets, one wing in a sling dirty from disinterest, she sneered me a dare. I put the broken woman-child in a tub of hot water went back to find him cursing and sobbing with a purple fury? a dark-shadowed fear?
The frustration of the lack of control to protect that he loved from the demon of
self-destruction.
"She is a bird hard fallen from the nest," I said, "but by the grace of God has only one wing severed."
I love broken things for broken things cannot help that they have been broken.
©Karen Chaffee 2009
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Random Poetry Challenge in the News
- In Afghan war, unconventional officer flourishes - Army News, news from Iraq, - Army TimesArmy Times1 second ago
ALTIMUR, Afghanistan — You may wonder how Thomas Gukeisen made it to lieutenant colonel, and by age 39 at that. He breaks Army rules and operates by his own rendition of counterinsurgency warfare whose arsenal includes Afghan poetry, chaos theory and the thoughts of a 17th-century English philosopher.
- Events - Poetry slam | Fort Worth Weekly - News, Events, Restaurants, MusicFort Worth Weekly11 hours ago
Weekly spoken-word performance. 8:30pm every Fri. $7. 817-899-0346. Man, this new color-coded, sortable Places to Eat List rocks. Chow, Baby, who is building a new bookcase even though it's not really allowed to play with power t...
- Seacoast community news in briefPortsmouth Herald5 hours ago
EXETER — The Seacoast Writers Association is now accepting submissions for the 2010 Writers Contest. The contest includes three categories: short story, poetry and personal essay, and prizes include cash ($100, $75 and $50 for first, second and...
- Tim Giago: Nelson Mandela was a man of poetryThe Huffington Post1 second ago
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) © 2009 Native Sun News December 21, 2009 One of the poems that gave me strength over these many...
- Brent Batten: Holiday health care vote is sheer poetryNaples Daily News13 hours ago
News that the Senate will vote on health care the night before Christmas cries out for something.Something original.Something clever.Something that’s never been done before.But what the heck, let’s just do what we always do _ rewrite Clement Moore’s “Twas the Night Before Christmas ” to fit the situation.‘Twas the night before Christmas , and all through the House Not a creature was stirring ...
- Book review: Dunne's farewell satire makes poetry of gossipDenver Post4 hours ago
Though with the posthumous publication of "Too Much Money," society journalist, novelist and man-about- town Gus Bailey has outlived his creator, Dominick Dunne — who died of bladder cancer in August — by several months. "Too Much Money" is a rueful swan song, a fluffy satire with mortality at its heart.
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I welcome your comments!
Israyfa, thank you!
Hi Karen
If the poem is as beautiful as this is, hell I'll wait! I love the resonant theme of broken things' helplessness and your fixing them. Hope to read more poetry from you.
btw, you can fix the form by using the drop down box in the editing/writing capsule. you can choose from headings, preformatted, paragraph etc. and view before you publish :D
Thank you for the tips on formatting, Cris. : ))
Very beautiful and well-crafted. I like the way you tie the animate with the inanimate to make your point that broken things can be mended or healed. Maybe not quite 'good as new' but certainly not fit only to discard.
Thank you, Amanda : )
Karen
Yes it is interesting as far as Loving Broken Things are healed this way too..
I know poetry heals and deals lots of things within ...
Thanks for this hub!
You are right, Healwell...poetry is very theraputic. Thank you for commenting : )
Karen
I, too love poetry Karen, but what I do rolls off the tongue, precisely, never any great thought except what comes from within.
You write wonderful poetry, I am not at all surprised that sometimes that can be slow to come, it is all the more praiseworthy.
You have a very special talent, and it is the succinctness of poetry which appeals to me apart from the message and the emotion.
Yours is wonderful.
It sounds like you have a definite gift, a natural one then, Katy : ) Thank you for your input, which is always valueable!
Karen
Very beautiful
israyfa says:
11 months ago
welcome to the challenge
nice work