~~~~~
Spirit of the Hare
Gentle are the days
when the lion-lamb
gives way to showers.
The bounty prevails
from the woods to the desert.
Easter held no joy
for Peter Cotton Tail
that year
when he was found abandoned
in sight of the bold sky,
the bubbly clouds, and
the laughing sun.
Mother gave kindness
to all living things,
healed the wounded
and took in the motherless.
There was hope in his new home,
a chance to survive
and begin again.
Daughter was small
blessed in youth
curious of all things.
Beautiful bunny was
reflected in brown
shining eyes of wonder.
She held him that night
with the love of a child
given to sincere exaggeration
of affection.
She held him that night
with the best dreams
until his fear broke free
escaped her embrace and
was lost in the darkness.
Fear broke the neck of hope
and crushed the possibility of more.
Daughter took Cotton Tail,
held a small ceremony
praying to a God she knew not
for the peace of his soul
and forgiveness
for her part in his demise.
Lies can hide
even in the throats of small girls,
flying out as a murder of crows,
an unkindness of ravens,
a clamor of rooks.
These birds flew recklessly
to Mother's ears.
Hidden beneath the refuse,
Mother's eyes still saw through the untruth,
the hiding of the act,
the supression of guilt.
Spoken to in hushed whispers
by the spirit of the unfortunate hare.
 |
| a detail from the painting The Vision of Saint Eustace by Pisanello. |
~~~~~
From Rachel's blog:
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 2009 WRITING EXERCISE #16
Ingredients:
1. what you stole
2. what you should not have let him/her take
3. what you want back
__________________
Write an apology list poem. To everyone. One per line. DO NOT list who the apology belongs to. If you broke mom's favorite picture frame, write "broken picture frame." then let that image graduate into something else, like, "cracked third grade smile." If you stole someone's car, let that graduate into, "the missing engine." see?!?!? that's IT. None of these have to be real. Except for the things you listed in #1 & 2. When referencing #2, of course, it is an apology to yourself. The importance here is in the specific details. And in keeping each apology as private as possible. And in never actually writing the word "sorry" or "apology." After all that, figure out a way to squeeze some of the lines into a poem about what you wrote for #3.
- - - - -
(This exercise was inspired by my obsession with creating new lists to mine from.)
~~~~~
My personal note on the process...
This time I read the whole instructions before writing the ingredients. Not that it really changed how I end up writing but usually I do the ingredients before reading the actual instructions.
Ingredients:
1. what you stole
- his heart
- her words
- their plans
2. what you should not have let him/her take
- my heart
- my words
- my plans
3. what you want back
- my heart
- my words
- my plans
The above is what came to me naturally, but I don't feel like it really fits the spirit of the prompt... seems like it should be more specific. Hmmm... I couldn't really think of anything really important that I stole. Trinkets here and there from entities rather than individuals long long ago.
Thought about the instructions where it talked about breaking a picture and that reminded me of when I was 5 or 6 and my mother rescued and abandoned baby jack rabbit from the desert near our house and I took it to bed with me and it got away and I found it the next morning dead under my bed. I buried it in the corral under a pile of wood. When my mom asked me about it, I lied and said I had no idea how the little rabbit got out of the big box in the living room and suggested maybe one of the cats got in during the night and ate the bunny. I think that was my very first bold faced lie directly to my mother's face. THAT could be something to write about. So "dead rabbit" would become "spirit of the hare" or "angel bunny" or something like that...? I think.
Then I looked at the instructions about this being an apology poem. Who would I apologize to really? There are so many small infractions on a nearly daily basis, but what LINGERS? Drawing a blank. Writer's block SUCKS. Seriously.
SO... decided on "Spirit of the Hare" which means I am on an unintended "bunny" theme between this and the last poem! I also decided to narrate this as being separate from my 5 year old self who is now young "she" instead of myself.
The end result was not exactly as instructed but I like the poem.
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