Day 28 – The Magi

Whoop!  Day 28!!!  A few days ago I was musing over the fact that so many of my poems are about nature, the moon, & etc.  “Why don’t I write about something mundane, like that bent Road Work Ahead sign or a traffic light?”  My mind composed this in the wee small hours and it seems a fitting finality to these amazing 28 Days of Unreason.  Once again, the words of Jim Harrison from Songs of Unreason have been mind-expanding and a true source of inspiration.  Thank you to all who have joined in, some every day and others as the muse prompts. Lynn, Charley & Qbit have been amazingly faithfull to the prompts and the light of my day for 28 of them.  Jane has caught the fever as well as Frank, Jenna, Hank, Jeren, and NoStAugustine.  Did I miss anyone?  The response has overjoyed me!  Where should we go next?  Rilke? Whitman?  (I need a vacation! LOL) Love Y’all!  ~ Jilly

“Why does the mind compose this music well before the words occur?”

~  Jim Harrison

THE MAGI

Approaching,
I will the light,
“Stay green. Stay green.”

It yellows.

Red.

Mindjackers surround the car
wrench open my door
their mouths open
singing music
with words I
cannot hear,
the rib-spreader
in their Magus hands.

I stare straight ahead,
grip the wheel;

the car behind me honks.
Green.

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

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Day 27 – Cinquain for My Love

With only one remaining day in the 28 Days of Unreason, this was one of the most difficult prompts for me to write from; there are many crumpled pages scattered round my feet.  It worked best when I limited myself to the short form of Cinquain. Songs of Unreason has been a great source for these writing prompts.  Here is today’s Harrison quote and my Cinquain in response:

“It is life’s work to recognize the mystery of the obvious”  

~ Jim Harrison

 

CINQUAIN FOR MY LOVE

you are

obviously mine

yet wholly yours unknown

to no one but yourself as I

am so

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Day 26 – Haiku ~ Longing for Stealth

The line from Songs of Unreason followed by my response poem:

“On some clear nights in the country the stars can exhaust us” 

~ Jim Harrison

 

there is no hiding

salted sky unnumbered stars

consumed by their eyes

 

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Day 25 – Dear Jim

There are just a few remaining days in our 28 Days of Unreason. Songs of Unreason has provided us with a number of quotes about water; this one triggered a response directed at our author, hence my title for today, Dear Jim.  Here is the line from Harrsion for today and my poem.

“The river can’t heal everything”  ~ Jim Harrison

Dear Jim,
For seven eternities we have been water, moving water, searching for healing from these unclaimed sins and now you tell us.

I look to the towering Norfolk Pine

but she, too, is silent

and incapable.

 

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Day 24 – Lest You Die

The closer I get to the end of the 28 Days of Unreason, the closer my writing is to the edge of sanity.  Not me, mind you, just the poet’s voice.  Here is the 24th line from Songs of Unreason and my poem, entitled Lest You Die.

“Nature has portals rather than doors”  ~ Jim Harrison

 

The Forgiving Tree

opens her arms

bids us step through

find sanity in the healing balm

drink

drink

drink

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Day 23 – Host

“Such fragile wings”

~ Jim Harrison from Songs of Unreason

HOST

With childlike verve
she leaps
from the soil, arabesques
sunward to embrace
synthesize all the power
of Sol
into her scented corona
sending secreted signals
to her mate

Photo by Author

Gulf Fritillary
hears, senses
arrives on
such fragile wings

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

The pass flora incarnate, passion flower, in all its exotic beauty, serves as the host plant to the beautiful orange Gulf and Variegated Fritillary butterflies who lay their eggs on the vine.  The hatched caterpillars exfoliate the host, spin their cocoons on the plant and the cycle continues.  Fortunately, the passion is prolific and returns with, well… passion.

Day 22 – Nocturne

“Nature detonates your mind with the incalculable freshness of the new day” 
~ Jim Harrison

Day 22 of the 28 Days of Unreason gives us a quote to boggle the mind with his word choices.  All 28 days are lines of Harrison’s poetry from Songs of Unreason.  My poetic response to this prompt is entitled Nocturne, but does not necessarily fit the definition of a poem in that style. I simply turned Harrison’s line to the perspective of the nocturnal creatures of this world.

NOCTURNE

Pomegranate pours
seed of life
fertilizing the awakening
chorus of crickets
night bugs and tree frogs
tree frogs

photo by Jilly

tree frogs
usher in the newly born
nocturne

poppying me into that deep
green-black world
where I freely see
eternity

 

© Jilly’s  All Rights Reserved

Day 21 – Within

On the cusp of the last week of 28 Days of Unreason, we have one of Harrison’s most unusual lines and yet, as poets, we know what he is talking about.  My response poem is something of a Diamante (diamond shape poem) but the form normally focuses on the number of words per line; mine counts syllables.  If you find inspiration in any of the lines from Songs of Unreason in these challenges, please drop me a line and let me know; I would love to read your excellent work!

“Like many poets I’m part blackbird and part red squirrel and my brain chatters, shrieks, and whistles.” ~ Jim Harrison

WITHIN

Howl

my mind

go ahead

skitter out loud

wail in the night hours

banshee witch you may be

evil bird who rattles me

divine messenger are you

gather green nuts for me

drop them at my feet

bid me eat them

gorge my spine

still I

write

© Jilly’s   All Rights Reserved

 

Day 20 – Travelling Without Fare

“Words are moving water, muddy, clear, or both”  ~  Jim Harrison

From Songs of Unreason, this is the quote for day 20 of the 28 Days of Unreason.  Here are my words in response, entitled Travelling Without Fare.

Colors of waves
in her coffee cup

very specific

create depression

(forbidden transfer)

Making her think

“Worry about me”

The silence fades

first

roiling the waters
of the approaching

divide

It was simple
at first

until the excess
of the sweetest

whys

bubbled up

Froth

No sugar

 

Day 19 – Cacophony of Birds

Day 19 of the 28 Days of Unreason brings a return of Silly Jilly, my childish alter ego. Humor her; she gets cranky when she’s told to grow up and act her age.  I’m just guessing she wanted to break from poetic tradition about using birds for metaphors and symbolic crap like that.  Views expressed here are not necessarily those of the author.  Songs of Unreason yields a beautiful quote for today:

“The birds are a chorus…clearly relatives of Mozart”  ~  Jim Harrison

CACOPHONY OF BIRDS

Albatross
pigeon
moorhen
and loon
they sync ‘neath my window
from sunrise ‘til noon

the booby
the cowbird
great heron
and goose
put up such a racket
like a bellowing moose

the shrike and the snipe
I’d most like to strike
with a silencing muzzle
my nerves are a fuzzle!

the starlings most startling
the grackles a ’cackle
the raven shows up
with a tool belt and spackle
(to fix and repair a bust standing there)

oh, where can I go
I need a good sleeper
but when I lie down
along comes a creeper

at last downs the sun
at evening they rest
but alas that screech owl
busts his buttons and vest

On Mozart and Handel
Now Beethoven and Bach
fly away, fly away
put thy beaks in a sock!

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