Day Ten – “Feeding the Lost Beast”

The Harrison quote from Songs of Unreason for Day # 10 of 28 Days of Unreason:

“Much that you see isn’t with your eyes”

My poetic response to that quote, entitled “Feeding the Lost Beast”

 

The notes only confuddle your eyes
play with that recklessness that feeds
that lost beast who runs
your life with dank
smoldering anger
passion
and regret

Snub the crowd what
do they know of the music
that clogs your arteries
with syncopated blues
viruses
diseased stones
hidden in your kidneys

Sense the horn
it is of your own
flesh
sinews wrapped
around muscles
heart valves

MUTE

© Jilly’s   All Rights Reserved

 

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Descent

The image in the picture triggered this one.

 

Gargoyling the street below he

Photo by Jilly

lurches over the edge
guzzling up the air
drowning fast in the heated updraft

“Devour the Bricks!”
his battle cry
“Brick the castle walls!”

Breath torn from his
plasticized lungs
stealing life
before the dive
is over
conquesting for naught

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

Day Nine – “Tracks”

I admit to today’s line being one of my favorites because of it’s obscurity.  In Songs of Unreason, Harrison often confounds me with a question, explicit or implied, that must be answered.  For this quote, I asked myself how it is that we remain in the air and then I stopped being literal and wrote poetry.   Thank you to everyone who has joined in as we make tracks through these 28 Days of Unreason!  Here is today’s Harrison quote and my poetic response to it with “Tracks” in Haiku form.

I love the tracks left by hundreds of species of birds that remain in the air like we do  

~Harrison

Photo by Jilly

 

Words clutter the air

Rambling authenticity

Bird saviors fly off

 

 

 

 

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Aye; Eyes

In faces we see years, or the lack thereof, tones of skin, lips of color and grin stretching out to welcome us or drawn tight to hide away the pain of days and nights, winters and spring, of living too much or not enough, walking the path to the river or the River, the dip of birth or the dip of death, the planting or harvesting, and as we walk by them, in the water, in the grass, in the tree or air, it is not in their faces that the story lies, it is in their eyes, their eyes, their eyes.

Eyes looking outward

Skeptical angry or no

The tale is thereby told

We are writing Haibuns over at dVerse tonight.  Join us!

© Words & Photos by Jilly  All Rights Reserved

Day Eight – “One of Life’s Puzzles”

“I’m not sure what it is, life’s puzzle.”  ~ Jim Harrison

28 lines, quotes from James Harrison’s poetry collection Songs of Unreason comprise these 28 Days of Unreason.  Lines from the poems in that collection are used as writing sparks, posted here, along with my poetic response.  This one triggered several poems for me, each a hard wrenching.  Here is the one I have chosen for this post.  Again, if you find any inspiration from the quotes, please let me know.  I have enjoyed seeing the words of several of my poetic friends!  Jilly

One of Life’s Puzzles

silos stand brick on
interlocking brick crumbling
against astringent sky

heft of corn years pressed
mortar sags sighs breaks ranks
tumbles to the ground

bleat of the last sheep
penned beside the washed-out barn
suns rise set forgive

angry winter dawns

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

Day Seven – “Moving Water”

“The only answer I’ve found is the moving water whose music is without a single lyric” ~ Jim Harrison

Songs of Unreason by Jim Harrison is supplying the inspiration for 28 days of poetry writing.  Several friends have joined me;  I hope you find inspiration in some these astounding words by Harrison.  If you do, please drop me a comment and let me know; I would love to read what you write!  Here is my response poem based on today’s quote.  Cheers! Jilly

© Photo by Jilly

is it our
Self
that we pursue
as we rush about
cluttering our lives
with heavy
furniture
and appointments

until the flood
comes without
siren or ceremony sweeping
it all off in a white
noise song
whose words remain
just out of ear’s
reach?

© Jilly’s All Rights Reserved

 

Six-Word Saturday #11

Chasing Rainbows; Cavorting with Storm Clouds

© Photos by Jilly  All Rights Reserved

 

 

 

Day Six – “The Violent Wind”

My head begins to explode as I go into the sixth day of Unreason, finding muse in the words of Jim Harrison looking down from the heights of reading Songs of Unreason. 

Here is today’s quote followed by my poem; again, I use the quote for my title:

“The violent wind. The violent wind. The violent wind.”  

~Jim Harrison

the violent wind bellowing
through my chest left
to right rips

You

from
me

a naked cavity
remains.

 

© Photo & Poem by Jilly  All Rights Reserved

Day Five – “Tiring of Language”

Using today’s quote from Songs of Unreason by Jim Harrison as a title and opening line, I allowed my mind to take flight from the restrainst of language.  I unabashedly draw inspiration from Lewis Carroll for this!  Here is the full quote, followed by my poem:

“Tiring of language, the mind takes flight”  ~ Jim Harrison

Tiring of language, the mind takes flight
over the clains and the dauphinous heights
glaying and growling
no simpering blights
to beknight that keen slight
skimming the slaughter
flagging toes ‘cross wiggles
of blub-blubbing water

What chains do grape about my neck
that flings of flaying canst unbreach
what strums of heaven do I cast and reach?

Darkuous does the land lie low
flounded full by semantic pull
O! Gravital arms release me go
to that splendiferous plain
hide-seeking least ye beyond
those shape drift clouds
of wanton toadstools
and rabbited brows.

© Jilly  All Rights Reserved

Day Four – “Break Down”

“There is a human wildness held beneath the skin that finds all barriers brutishly unbearable”
~ Jim Harrison from Songs of Unreason

BREAK DOWN

The nightmare’s voice
fills up your silence with jazz
MAD JAZZ
promises to free
up your body
fading the film to               b   l   a    c    k
wipe clean your slate
choose the           s  w   i   r   l      i n g           horns
the

     C

A

S

C

A

D

I

N

G

   questions

that shred
that trembling
barbed wire
against the Parrish sky
stretch out the wings
you never knew you had
stand upon the window

ledge

calling out
to the stars in their
own language

Fly beyond

© Jilly’s   All Rights Reserved

Posting for dVerse Jazz Poetry with Amaya.