Wednesday 30 April 2014

POETRY JAM - SUNSET

“It is such a secret place, the land of tears…” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Poetry Jam this week has chosen the prompt of “sunsets”. Contributors who take up the challenge come up with a poem around this topic. Here is my contribution:


Antique Engraving

The sun paints the west with saffron
The sky around it mauve.
The naked trees are shuddering,
Night comes fast, dark and cold.
In front of me the city stretches
Dressed in grey and black,
While in the horizon’s depths
Bell towers echo a melancholy sadness –
A baroque sadness, violet, heavy, lonesome.

A chimney spews out smoke
Spreading shadows like endless veils
That asphyxiate me,
Aided by the bony claws
Of dead branches.
My pain, a dying bird
Has nested in my throat,
And sorrow throttles me
With hands like pincers.

In the west, the golden glow is no more
Black clouds cover the sky.
Hope flies away, chased by the ill wind,
That gallops past,
Piercing my empty soul as it leaves.

18 comments:

  1. a baroque sadness....nice...really like the visuals and how you layered them...the chimneys...the bony claw branches....they all build nicely to set the mood in this one...

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  2. I hope soon the all sadness goes away and sun rises again.....

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  3. This does have a heavy baroque feel to it. Sadness in contrast to the beauty. May the sun come again.

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  4. A real forlorn hope about this, love the way you blend the smoke into the words. This is quite provocative.

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  5. Contemplative and beautiful, Nicholas.

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  6. A dark and poignant poem, Nicholas. I guess in keeping with Autumn and perhaps your state fo mind at the time. I hope things brighten up soon.

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  7. I think your interpretation of Alan's challenge is most unique and beautifully composed.

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  8. Oh! So dark and melancholy... Perfect for an autumn sunset

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  9. It really does portray beautifully an antique engraving sunset

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  10. ... positively apocalyptic ... such a dark mood you've created here ... great noir.

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  11. "My pain, a dying bird / Has nested in my throat,"...the lines make the feel palpable...but the darkness has its own beauty of twinkles too meditating on a new sunrise...love the dark lines here..

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  12. Such a sad but beautiful story, full of lessons...

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  13. Dark and sombre and beautiful...

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  14. A Baroque sadness, like Albinoni's "Adagio". Wonderful poem

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  15. Some really great lines in this! Loved baroque sadness, pain like a bird nestled in my throat, from light to darkness. Quite a journey

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  16. Sad but beautiful, nevertheless.

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  17. Melancholy and introspective, but beautiful

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