Only the wild children
know what parting
means.
The tame ones
think it is merely
good-bye.
© Jilly’s All Rights Reserved
‘for Day 18 of 28 Days of Unreason
“We’ll know as children again all that we are
destined to know, that the water is cold
and deep, and the sun penetrates only so far”
~ Jim Harrison from Death Again
I noticed a few comments yesterday regarding sluggish backsides. I agree! However, there is this strange sense of addiction…”Must write; must write!” keeps scrolling across my forehead when I look in the mirror. 🙂 Alas, I poem onward!
Everyone is welcome to join us in the challenge! Let the quote above inspire you to write, post & credit Harrison, pingback or link back here in the comments. Then give yourself a wonderful treat and read what other unreasonable poets have written. Enjoy!
Don’t be afraid
the water is fine
go ahead
step into the grasses
you’ll sink
only ankle deep
at first
wade around
hear —
feel the sound
of the ants
the mole
little burrowing
frogs
this is their realm
step carefully
when you reach the edge
of your fears
the drop-off
is quick
Chest-deep
hear —
feel the sound
of the crickets
clatter loud
from their
little soap-boxes
it’s only rhetoric
legends about
the red-tailed hawk
Employ the treading
techniques you learned
as the weeds and soft
dirt beard about your chin
your ear lobes
hear —
swim in the sounds
of the tree roots
tapping at your toes
they are only curious
to learn how a man
can live only
one lifetime
and what it is to
gain entrance to
your soil
Do not stay too long
lest your skin become
grainy and your legs
begin to cramp
turn
face the shore
swim back
before you
forget how to speak
your native tongue
© Jilly’s All Rights Reserved
for Day 17 of 28 Days of Unreason
“Prolonged exposure to nature gives one a sort of grammatica pardo, a wisdom of the soil.” ~ Jim Harrison from A Really Big Lunch
Author’s Note: An invitation. I like this poem; it speaks of a part of myself that is significant; that connection with the natural world, swimming in it, learning its language. However, it falls flat on the page for me. It lacks something…vibrancy of language? Imagery? Structure/Formatting? I welcome straight-forward feedback from y’all. How could I make this better? 🙂 Jilly
~ Jim Harrison, from A Really Big Lunch
*to be worldly-wise; know the ways of the world
Technically, A Really Big Lunch is not a book of poetry; it is a series of essays by Harrison. I am currently reading it. Warning: it is outlandish and best read with much wine and a propensity for laughter. I used this quote because, like much of his prose, it has the stuff of poetry and because his connection to nature is a big part of why I connect with the poetry.
As always, everyone is welcome to join in. Write a poem inspired by this quote, post it, credit Harrison, link back in the comments, stop back by and read other poets. Cheers! Jilly
Blab, blab, blab
because right about now
I’m wondering why the hell
this quote just doesn’t
do a thing for me
I mean
I’ve spent this whole month
being a shyster
posing as a poet
but it’s just that
smoke and mirrors crap
Merde
which is my favorite French word
because it sounds so much
nicer than
shit
which I have
always been loath
to say
mostly because
I don’t like how it sounds
So
this poetry gig
is just
Merde
it makes my head
hurt
it makes me
pace around
and whine
with a kind of
restless sigh
because the walls
are closing in
And what the hell does
it really mean
to be a ‘Poet’?
They all look
at you like
you are a freak
or alien.
Even the rest of
the English teachers
say things like
‘bless your heart’
and
‘of course you wrote
a poem about that’
even though they
teach cummings
and of course
Shakespeare
because it’s in
the curriculum
but when that
colleague’s
husband died
of brain cancer
and they came to you to
write a poem
to be presented to her
even though you
never knew him
barely know her
and you spent
three lunch periods
standing at the window
that overlooks the
school’s baseball field
(which makes it my perfect
classroom)
crying because
the poem
cost you something to
write
but you kept your
door locked
so no one would
know you cried
Then it’s okay
to be a poet,
when they want
someone to bleed,
but still
it’s all
just
Merde
(I like that word —
would like it a lot more
if I could afford French
wine, like Harrison
drank, but, hey,
I’m a school teacher
and the pay…well, you
know)
So, does that cover it?
© Jilly All Rights Reserved
For Day 16 of 28 Days of Unreason
“You can’t write the clear biography
of the aches and pains inside your skull”
~ Harrison from Skull / Songs of Unreason
~ Harrison from Skull / Songs of Unreason
Everyone is welcome to join us in the challenge! Let the quote above inspire you to write, post & credit Harrison, pingback or link back here in the comments. Then give yourself a wonderful treat and read what other unreasonable poets have written. Enjoy!
~Jilly
After they were gone
the anniversary song
of the day they’d wed
soon came along
They met at the appointed spot
to share a dance, neither forgot
With dangly limbs and bony nibs
they soon found that they’d
locked their cagey ribs
and so it seemed he forgot to lead
went for a dip but got only kneed
They faltered and soon fell to giggles
but lacking in fat or skin that jiggles
They stepped on feet and clacked their heads
jaw bones rattled —
no apologies said
for by now you’ll know that when they still
drank tea, ate jam and bread
they’d failed, quite failed
to study hard;
to learn the Language
the Dead.
© Jilly & Silly Jilly All Rights Reserved
Couldn’t resist a Silly Jilly for this one! Enjoy, have fun and have a listen to the Sound Cloud, which always seems necessary when Silly Jilly is around 😉
for Day 15 of 28 Days of Unreason
“I’ve spent a lifetime
trying to learn the language of the dead”
~ Jim Harrison from Sister in Songs of Unreason
~ Jim Harrison from Sister in Songs of Unreason
Welcome, again! Looking forward to the wonderful things you will write today, my friends. As always, everyone is welcome to join in. Write a poem inspired by this quote, post it, credit Harrison, link back in the comments, stop back by and read other poets. Love Y’all! ~Jilly
I run swiftly
too suddenly,
too swiftly.
Melt and wash-out
bludgeon my margins
bruised and swollen,
gorged
with the silt
with the Dead
with the Dead
that could not find
the sky
for it is the same
color
as I
color
as I
Their stench,
their straining
for naught,
and urgent
and urgent
am I
I
must go down
must go down
to the sea
Shed them
I will.
To be caught
to be caught
on the rocks
and the brambles
to bloat
and to float,
eternally swept
or at last
or at last
gladly
fished out
That place
O, that place!
where purification
finds me
to cleanse me
to cleanse me
lies below ground
in the caverns,
the caverns
inside the flues
Do not follow me there,
Children;
Do not follow me there
© Jilly’s All Rights Reserved
for Day 14 of 28 Days of Unreason
“The hardest part is when the river
is too swift and goes underground for days on end”
~Jim Harrison from Songs of Unreason
~Jim Harrison from Songs of Unreason
Fourteen of Twenty-Eight. We mark the half-way point in this unreasonable undertaking, my poetic friends! Tomorrow we begin to travel down the other side of the hill. Thank you all for joining in! Everyone is welcome to jump in and write. Simply post your poem along with the Harrison line (with due credit) and then pingback here in the comments. I’ll stop by and read, as will other unreasonable poets! Love y’all, ~ Jilly
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