The Broken Bones of Hope

I'm taking a poetry course at Coursera called Sharpened Visions with Douglas Kearney.

So far (I'm on Lesson 2), I've learned that poetry is about sound and rhythm. And many rewrites. First assignments are two poems involving images (concrete things) and symbols (abstract things.)

These are first drafts that have not been workshopped yet. We'll see how they progress.

Make A Still Life: Without All of That Messy Paint

In the tradition of the Imagists, write a poem that describes an object. Be as literal and vivid as possible. Pick up the object (if you can), look at it from as many different angles as possible. Consider its color, its weight, its texture, its material and write up a picture!

Object: Red Heart Christmas Tree Ornament

burgundy, claret, merlot, blushing berries

straw, rasp, goose, chokecherry and bittersweet gems

ruby, rosy, glowing crimson bubbly bumps of blown

silica, white dots skipping on the shiny surface

sparking interior depths, slight, light, fragile

glass, brittle but unbroken, uncracked, reflecting 

back to back flames in Braille bumps,

sanguine beats, heart beats, distressed beats

surrounding the clavicle head, smooth neck top

crowned in delicate gold tracery 

Hello, My Name Is…: Title as Poem Catalyst

Think up a poem title structured as such: The [Concrete Noun] of [Abstract Noun]. Then, write a poem based on that title.

The Broken Bones of Hope

Despair is in the air seeping through

The cracks in your defenses, sucking

You dry, emptying you until you become

A husk, dried and lifeless, dust to dust

So you look for the carcass of hope

The throbbing ache of broken bones

A rotten tooth that you wiggle and wiggle with

The tip of your tongue, daring the pain

To linger and keep you awake at night

Banishing the gaping chasm of nothingness