“I am thy fool in the morning, Thou art my slave in the night.”
Paul Dunbar, ~ The Paradox
Trapped in vast cosmotic realms,
Lost in witty senseless,
Here again, we go over and about:
Building paper castles, feeding crows,
And rowing ships still ashore.
When will you let me rest
At peace without a break?
Is it too much for tired lids to ask?
Fabled in fantasy, spelled with miraging visions,
Strained beyond blue horizons past my shadows:
Desperate to see tomorrow coming.
But who cares? This life’s flower withers.
Why busy with these empty ponderings;
All beyond endless wonder.
How you lure me to slip into your cozy lies;
Tangled, twisted, outside time:
Every passing awakening smarks my face.
Can’t your balloon now just set sail
So that we fly knaught, to not so deluded heights?
Why keep me day dreaming!
–Biko, 2021.
In response to Poets Pub Poetics: Beyond Meaning or The Resolution of Opposites.
For this prompt, Laura gave us choices. I have chosen lines from Paul Dunbar; tried to follow his thoughts and wrote a poem therein.
“How you lure me to slip into your cozy lies”
A wonderful line in an excellent poem — well written!
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Thank you so much Rob for your kind words… am so glad you noticed.
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Frustration writ large, but so is the allure of what’s promised! This is the paradox of daydreams indeed!
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Yes, Dora. You are expounding the paradox! 🙂
And sometimes people can give you daydreams..
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‘And rowing ships still ashore’
Anxiety is so well explained in your poem. Very nicely done!
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That’s an anxious line, for sure M Jay…
Thank you for visiting with the kind words…
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your poem is full of the most interesting questions and analogies -“Building paper castles, feeding crows” and your final couplet is remarkable and topped off with that final surprise of a question
“Can’t your balloon now just set sail
So that we fly naught, to not so deluded heights?”
Why keep me day dreaming!”
p.s. one thing though – the Dunbar lines should not be part of your poem as they belong to him
“Yet, I am thy fool in the morning,
Thou art my slave in the night;”
they can be placed separately at the start as a epigraph – see HERE or referenced at the end where you describe the prompt.
thank you for joining in with this poem
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Hey Laura. Am so pleased you stopped by.
Had to painfully let Dunbar keep his words.
And the challenge led me to a peculiar road, familiarly less taken. Thank you BIG! 🖤
Again, your tips on epigrapgh really helped me curve this poem around. 🔥
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so glad you found a way!!
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Yes. Had to, after the exposure.
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a gentle one I hope!!
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😊
The gentle exposure lead to a rough road…
Did make it close to your query?
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I really love this, I can feel the way you are lured into dreams… but maybe those are needed to stay afloat after all.
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Definitely. Only that reality never is as dreamt. The real surreal
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the re-write is even better though
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Feels better.
Curves into my earlier feeling of being bothered with day dreaming, as she leads nowhere yet I fall into her trap everytime I want to peak into my tomorrows. But they never come as promised.
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Simply excellent!!!
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Thank you Luisa.
Very pleased that you visited. 😊
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🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
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🤗
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Really love this, so much imagery!
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I think it is superbly written.
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I’m glad you think so Kally.
Glad you stopped by. Do you love poetry?
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Yes I do!
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Awesome. Keep coming. There’s plenty just for you. ☺
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