Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Drought poem

summer sun on my brows
sweat pours, deluge
of oppressive heat, thick
black oil, clotting
my mind to numbing rage-
words, wrinkled ash
tumbled from my cracked lips-
lost in sea-sands-




@Grace



Posted for D'verse Poets Pub - Drought or Deluge, hosted by Walter Wojtanik.   Having arrived from California, I was struck with the drought images of the hills and fields.

24 comments:

  1. Your photos say it all, and your words are added flair, Grace! Thanks for this.

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  2. Strong observances as you travel the backsides of paradise, sans oasis, sans shade.

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  3. How beautiful! Good to read you once more Grace, Poppy...

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  4. Your words make desolation almost sound inviting. :)

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  5. Loved how you got deluge and drought into the same poem!

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  6. That sounds pretty bad. I don't think Rodney Dangerfield could top that. Stay cool!

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  7. oh love your title Grace telling everything...the lines make us see the words uttered...

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  8. It's reAlly tough
    being an empath
    as not only does one
    hear the crackle of the
    grass beneath..
    one feels
    the grass
    as well
    not
    weLL
    aT aLL..
    and oh Lord..
    thE Bliss of retirement
    but feelinG those rainy
    days and Mondays of the
    neighbors
    who
    sTiLL
    live in heLL.
    oh yeah.. most
    all 7 billion of them
    around the world.. after
    midnight.. the FeeLinGs get
    quieter on the weekdays heRe..
    DrOught
    of soUl..
    IS A worst
    DrY oF aLL..
    and sAdly the parched notes
    are even somber dead in church
    but i out sing it and out dance
    it and out word it on the Internet2
    ha... and that's why i write/dance.. so.. so
    much it takes that much to numb the pain
    of the rest of the world in dArkness
    to BRinG thE
    sAMe amount
    oF life to erase
    the death as liFe
    thaT lives and circles
    the globe in dArk.. alas
    tHere IS A hoPe.. as teAM liGht
    iS GroWinG briGhter from dimmer liGht..:)

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  9. Your ways with descriptive words is amazing...

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  10. 'Deluge of oppressive heat' is a stunning metaphor, Grace, that conveys to me, as someone who has no concept of them, the discomfort of high temperatures. That 'thick black oil, clotting' makes me feel more than uncomfortable. I can understand how violence easily erupts in such weather. But its those final lines that do it for me - a drought of words is something writers fear:
    'words, wrinkled ash
    tumbled from my cracked lips-
    lost in sea-sands-'

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  11. Relief--will it ever come? Is this 3 weeks of atmospheric oppression our new normal? People think my beard is hot and too much, they wilt at the sigh of it but in truth it is just as much an insulator against the heat as it is the brutal cold which has become our new normal for the 9 months of winter in Detroit.

    I do not suggest you grow one though Grace. ;-)

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  12. ... yep ... just like menopause, friend Grace .... first me is 2 hot, then me is 2 cold ... and round and round we go ... smiles ... Love, cat.

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  13. "wrinkled ash tumbled from my cracked lips" This is an amazing line, Grace.
    I read this three times -- the connections are many. The earth is speaking -- the earth pictured in your photo here. Black tar melting in the sun -- earth to dust to sand.
    And someone mentioned menopause -- oh yes....did you know that 3% of women suffer (and I use that word realistically) from hot flashes for the rest of their life? And we are the "mother earth" -- rage words that happen when hormones turn to ash...
    Powerful words here -- in either way of the reading.

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  14. Love the photo too, well on point.

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  15. Drought sure can spin about and make everything dry out

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  16. I love your choices of words in this Grace. Drought and deluge. Unfortunuately, due to overbuilding, over planting, too many cars - this is how it is in too sunny California. And the wildfires! Nope, you couldn't pay me enough to live anywhere on the west coast.

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  17. "thick
    black oil, clotting
    my mind"

    "wrinkled ash
    tumbled from my cracked lip"

    I love those sections.

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  18. You describe poets' drought so well, it makes my mouth dry, Grace!

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  19. Loved this Grace.

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  20. words, wrinkled ash
    tumbled from my cracked lips

    How one detests it when words are hard to come by. Frustrating! Rightly so Grace!

    Hank

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  21. oh you def allow us to feel the heat
    dripping off your parched lips. it has been so hot.
    we were at the beach the last 4 days and only went to the ocean in the morning, or evening. the mid day was so scorching with a heat index of over 108.

    def drink plenty of water, or it will do some crazy things to your head. smiles.

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  22. I like how you worked the word deluge in to describe the drought.

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  23. I like how you worked the word deluge in to describe the drought.

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  24. I can almost imagine it, as if the earth talks during a drought, summer sun beating down upon it!

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