Looking Golden

This is my poem for NPM22 Flex Scavenger Hunt prompt #5 – Write a Golden Shovel poem or write a poem incorporating the theme of change. The poem is by Anne Brontë, the youngest of the Brontë sisters. She died at the age of 29 yet managed to carve a small space among her more prolific sisters with her novels and poems. This Golden Shovel is written as a Choka – a Japanese form of a series of lines with alternating 5 and 7 syllables and a 7 syllable end line (5/7/5/7/7) in any number of lines often exceeding 100 lines. The poem used is titled Mirth and Mourning and the first part reads:
O cast away your sorrow; —
Awhile, at least, be gay!
If grief must come tomorrow,
At least, be glad today!
==============================
I cry loudly, O
And from my breast I cast
All changes away
And all the tokens of your
False love and points of sorrow
I abide awhile
Recall my heart resting at
The sound of your least
Strident words saying “Just be”
Worlds bedecked in flowers gay
Erased the what if
But now I’m drowning in grief
A changeling that must
Honestly and in truth be come
Newborn of tears tomorrow
When faked love falls at
The temple altar at least
Free from you I’ll be
Relieved the change made me glad
Gained freedom from you today

A new face for this year’s scavenger hunt, Monty Vern, has invited me to join his April Golden Shovel challenge. I considered and then asked, “Why not?” Since there wasn’t a good reason not to participate, I’m jumping in. That means that today you get a twofer! This is free verse because…
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep” by Robert Frost from his poem – Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.

You tricked me into the
Moon lit night and led me into woods
Asking me what my intentions are
Not waiting for an answer saying lovely
Words and making promises dark
You held me, kissed me and
Now I’ll never wake from this sleep deep

As a post script – I don’t often write love poems so I thought I’d change it up and write about love lost. Sometimes we dodge a bullet and don’t even realize it until much later. Sometimes we know immediately. And then there are the times we can’t move fast enough to not get hit….

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