They answer like dead men
A sound silent as a thought
words still as those graven
and uttered like mute birds caught
perilous the journey through synapses
binding wings and tongues confined
unuttered lights high in barren copses
guide to truth the deaf and blind
specters of unanswered prayers
searing darkness stirs the voice to sight
angel’s wings unused turn grayer
lightning’s torch chases spirits to flight
awake! arise! deadened senses revive
snatched from the gates of hell
draw out of the pit where silences thrive
unsound the mumming knell
resuscitating tongues untied
cataracts of fire refined
answers voiced and mortem belied
a rush of sound now divined
Jilly's 
Here’s my first attempt:
words still as those graven
and uttered like mute birds caught
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Nice! Setting up a rhyme scheme… working
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Next:
perilous the journey through synapses
binding wings and tongues confined
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Got it. Let’s see if I can keep it from crashing! 🙂
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Back in a bit – look forward to your next!
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Here we go:
unuttered lights high in barren copses
guide to truth the deaf and blind
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Nice job! You are also keeping my syllabic count? (Update forthcoming)
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Yes! And watching your phrasing….
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“specters of unanswered prayers
searing darkness stirs the voice to sight”
I like the motifs in this!
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Got it! Back in a few…
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Got it!
angel’s wings unused turn grayer
lightning’s torch chases spirits to flight
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Hmmm – like it. Must think….
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awake! arise! deadened senses revive
snatched from the gates of hell
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Ohhh, cool!
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Well, I thought it needed soemthing to move us toward a resolution since we end at 10 total couplets.
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🙂
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Try this:
draw out of the pit where silences thrive
unsound the mumming knell
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mumming! Now THAT is one for the bucket list! 🙂
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Again with the bucket lists?!? A hammock, a glass of wine, a pulitzer. Okay, a chance to drive a Masserati ragtop….
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You’re easy to please. Except, maybe the hammock…
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Yeah, that’s the difficult one. But it would be perfect in my classroom!
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Ha!
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resuscitating tongues untied
cataracts of fire refined
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Got it! Wracking my brains.
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Let’s see how this works. I’ve been binge writing tonight, and this just seems to work:
answers voiced and mortem belied
a rush of sound now divined
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Divined – not devined? Brilliant!
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I love how you brought this back to the beginning with the found voices! Great work, Charley!
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Thank you! It was, of course, just how I planned… I was winging it, and praying for some more altitude.
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Charley – unfortunately the crystal ball shows you never actually own a Maserati. Sorry about the bad news. But it does show you using “Maserati” in a poem. Best of luck.
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I accept that challenge! Not only will I use it in a poem… I’ll do what I can to test drive one. Not sure I want to own one. When I was a weatherman in the Air Force, our unofficial slogan was that we did it with crystal balls. …forecasting, that is.
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Wahahaha!
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I think we need a Maserati Renga ignition couplet from you.
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Okay… Thinking… Let me fly this past you… My Maserati does One Eighty-Five… through creosote.
No, I’ll work on it. Really.
I want to do this!
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Whoop! Popcorn time!
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Haha!
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Ok, one couplet remains for each of us. Let’s put a finish on this with great flourish!!
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No pressure there!
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Keep it up! It’s all terrific!
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Working through this now… I love the rhyming, and the epic meter and voicing. You guys kept really close to a single voice, I can’t really detect that this is two people.
“perilous the journey through synapses” is amazing, as us “answers voiced and mortem belied”. My mind is doing a post-mortem on that!!
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Charley managed to match syllable count and rhymes while echoing my words – and he works fast. Dang!
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The verbings are divined!
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Thanks!
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