"Life is the dancer and you are the dance."
Eckhart Tolle

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

"In a Western Town" we write poems #44-make your own wordle

 
A wild horseman carries his battered book
in a hidden pocket of his saddlebag,
riding past the titled windmills where
a meek preacher is sleeping on an old bench,
dreaming of a hawk-winged prophet’s
return to the distant and almost forgotten woodland.
A sign hangs above him that has been written
by hand in bold letters:

“Do not bare your shoulders, it will
cause you much pain in the future”

While somewhere in the center of town,
shoulders and long slender necks
arrange a distinctive pattern in the dirt,
like a zigzag that crosses back and forth.
Nearby, a young boy sits in his room looking out a dusty
window watching passing hooves,
hoping the wild horseman will come back one day and
read from his book … the words he wants to hear.

28 comments:

  1. So many similar images from the song, and yet a completely different story.

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  2. You have captured so many wonderful images, and my mind kept adding images, wild horseman-- shaggy haired rider, battered book--journal of his journey, or holy book, windmills--hot desert sands, zigzag--papers, or razors....I guess I just couldn't slow down. Your images kept me jumping to others....doesn't always happen....very interesting.

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  3. Pamela, you've certainly made imaginative storytelling. Nicely done.

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  4. Pamela, You make me want to bare my shoulders. :) Strong images run through this piece...I love it!
    !Brenda

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  5. We don't get enough narrative poems here. Great to see you about it. I'd love to hear that wild horsemen read a few pages from his book, too. -- Brendan

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  6. Makes me think of "The Quick and the Dead". Same air of oddness hiding a tale.

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  7. Awesome scene. Reminds me a bit of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls" which is a pretty rad poem as well. Your has the same mysterious, enticing feel as I read it.

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  8. Pamela - you really can tell a story! You can taste the dust and feel a piece of history as it races by on speedy hooves.

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  9. What a wonderful story! Great images paint a clear picture for me. Very nicely done.

    Shari

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  10. Pamela, there is a yearning that seeps through your poem, just beneath the story well told. I'm with the young boy, "come back and read from your book."

    Also really like the Yeats quote,

    Elizabeth

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  11. Cryptic narrative... there's a lot lurking underneath, I think. Makes me think of post-apocalyptic a little bit. :)

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  12. Wow, this is an amazing poem, and tells a poignant tale. I love the idea of the book hidden in the saddlebag and the preacher dreaming of "a hawk-winged prophet's return"......and then the boy, also waiting.......just lovely. A highly enjoyable read.

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  13. Love this Pamela...you are quite the story teller indeed! :-)

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  14. Wow, Annell, glad you could read so much in it.

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  15. You can if you want to, Brenda:)

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  16. Barb, it has been a long time, since I have seen
    that movie.

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  17. Elizabeth, I would like to hear what the horseman has to say, too. I know that quote is great, one of my favourites.

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  18. Joseph, there is a story to be told here:)

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  19. Thanks, Carrie, good to see you.

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