Looking at Abandonment

This is my offering for the W3 Poetry Prompt this week as put forward by Punam – to write a Pantoum about abandonment. The Pantoum is a Malaysian form of interlocking 4 line stanzas where the 2nd and 4th lines become the 1st and 3rd lines in the following stanza. The rhyme scheme is abab, bcbc, cdcd, etc. And the last stanza utilizes the 1st and 3rd lines from the 1st stanza as the 2nd and 4th lines. There is no set line length or meter.

I embrace the great abandonment
As the sun sets over the hill
I know that love was heaven sent
Feel that you love me still

As the sun sets over the hill
Streams of water run from my eyes
Feel that you love me still
I see the angels in the skies

Streams of water run from my eyes
Wealth and comfort I leave behind
I see angels in the skies
Hope that greater riches find

Wealth and comfort I leave behind
I know that love was heaven sent
Hope that greater riches find
I embrace the great abandonment

There are lots of different kinds of abandonment. People abandon hope, dreams, faith, love, homes, and even family and children and spouses. Anything you can have can be abandoned. The greatest and most final abandonment is of this life. Death separates us. We feel abandoned by those who have died.

Looking at the Flavor of Color

Again I am adding a post in addition to my regular schedule. I was compelled to do so for the W3 prompt offered by the Poet of the Week Aditi Sharma on the Skeptics Kaddish. Aditi challenged us to write a Pantoum about “anything dreamy, something non-existent in the real world, or just about your real-life dreams”. Because I love the Pantoum I couldn’t resist. Which is why you have to have stamina to read this poem all the way through. I considered chopping out part of it but, hey, I like it the way it is.

I see deep greens in azure streams
Murky depths where the light is low
My prism eyes detect the separate dreams
I feel the colors of the swirling flow

Murky depths where the light is low
Rough red and saffron through my hands
I feel the colors of the swirling flow
My crimson blood released to foreign lands

Rough red and saffron through my hands
I taste the tang of purple, indigo and drink it in
My crimson blood released to foreign lands
Running carmine and cobalt off lip and chin

I taste the tang of purple, indigo and drink it in
My mouth is not big enough to contain the swell
Running carmine and cobalt off lip and chin
I hear humming wave and chiming bell

My mouth is not big enough to contain the swell
Bass brown countered by soprano buzz of blues
I hear humming wave and chiming bell
My soul sings in counterpoint in forest green hues

Bass brown countered by soprano buzz of blues
Inviting me to become the water’s bride
My soul sings in counterpoint in forest green hues
I want to be washed, soaked in color, tie-dyed

Inviting me to become the water’s bride
I pray for more than black and white
I want to be washed, soaked in color, tie-dyed
No artist’s palette can contain the sight

I pray for more than black and white
My thoughts are drenched in grue and bleen
No artist’s palette can contain the sight
Hope is water wings glowing octarine*

My thoughts are drenched in grue and bleen**
My dreams float above the water line
Hope is water wings glowing octarine
Caught on fire and drowned in brine

My dreams float above the water line
I see deep greens in azure streams
Caught on fire and drowned in brine
My prism eyes detect the separate dreams

*Octarine, in the Discworld books, is known as ‘the colour of magic’, which forms the title of Pratchett’s first ever Discworld book. According to Disc mythology, octarine is visible only to wizards and cats, and is generally described as a sort of greenish-yellow purple colour.

** Grue and Bleen are sniglets to describe a color that extends to include shades of blue and green.  An alternative, meaning the same thing, is bleen, though linguists and anthropologists tend to use the term grue. 

Looking at Resisting Temptation

There are few things more delicious than eating a sun warmed tomato straight off the vine. Or perhaps your temptation is a fresh pepper to nibble after giving the outer surface a quick rub. Sparky loves both of those but his main temptation is the green bean. He tore out his beans and peas and in the process discovered quite a few that he’d missed. Not being one to waste food, he filled a small bowl. Then he filled his mouth. Repeatedly. As a dutiful cook, I washed and trimmed and steamed his bountiful harvest. Among the beans were some that I’d classify as “shelly beans” or even a little further gone. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, a shelly bean is between a green snap bean and a dried soup bean. They have other names, depending on where you live – green shells, shelling beans, October beans, shellies, shuckies, or fall beans. Anyway Sparky couldn’t resist the temptation in the garden. He must have consumed a sizable portion of raw beans. At least that was the information I was able to pry out of him. I tried to tell him that raw green beans contained a toxin that in large enough quantities or in susceptible individuals could cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gas and bloating. He didn’t believe me. Until he did. I’m starting to think that the narrative of the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden might be a little skewed. And maybe the expulsion was intestinal, the result of eating too many green beans! From my experience, I’m thinking it was Adam who got duped into picking forbidden produce. Maybe he was the one to take the first bite. Realizing what he’d done, decided that misery loves company and persuaded Eve to have a bite…

Adam and Eve in the garden first felt
That now familiar pull
As in the shade of that tree they knelt
Eating apples til full

That now familiar pull
Sin’s wicked temptation
Eating apples til full
Resulting in ruination

Sin’s wicked temptation
Caused by a devilish snake
Resulting in ruination
When that bite they did take

Caused by a devilish snake
Exiled from the garden complete
When that bite they did take
Taken in by Satan’s deceit

Exiled from the garden complete
Hiding naked but covered in shame
Taken in by Satan’s deceit
Finger pointing Eve takes the blame

Hiding naked but covered in shame
Adam and Eve in the garden first felt
Finger pointing Eve takes the blame
As in the shade of that tree they knelt

Just a little pantoum, a Malaysian form consisting of 4 line stanzas where the 2nd & 4th lines become the 1st & 3rd lines of the next stanza. The paired lines are rhymed. To close use the 1st & 3rd lines of the first stanza as lines 2 & 4 of the last stanza (or close with a rhyming couplet).

Looking at a Bad Scalp Condition

The warmer weather has loosened all the petals from the blooms on the trees. It is as if the trees all have a really bad case of dandruff. I can imagine them shaking their heads and then brushing the petals off their shoulders. As it is I end up with petals in my hair as I walk beneath the row of flowering plums. After the last rain, the sidewalk was covered in white petals…

The way the dandruff flies
With every shake it falls
White showers from the skies
Springtime’s many flaws

With every shake it falls
Drifting on the wind
Springtime’s many flaws
Dainty petals descend

Drifting on the wind
On my shoulders land
Dainty petals descend
Flakes brushed away by hand

On my shoulders land
Dislodged and scattered ‘round
Flakes brushed away by hand
End up on the ground

Dislodged and scattered around
A passing phase will change
End up on the ground
All the trees have mange

A passing phase will change
The way the dandruff flies
All the trees have mange
White showers from the skies

This is a Pantoum, a Malaysian poetry form, consisting of interlocking stanzas of 4 lines. The 2nd and 4th line of the beginning stanza become the 1st and 3rd lines of the next stanza. There are no limits to the number of stanzas. The poem can be completed with a single rhyming couplet or use the 1st and 3rd lines of the first stanza as the 2nd and 4th lines of the last stanza. The lines should rhyme (1st/3rd and 2nd/4th) but there is no specific meter. Some modern Pantoums do not use rhyme…