Thursday, January 31, 2019

Coldest Night



Black raven perches on fence, eyes piercing
Through snow-misted air, bill poised for killing-
I mused how many will die, unburied 
As howling wind knives the fields, dry, stinging

Our eyes, blue with salt, as we hurried
through burdens & loneliness, stacked, storied-
I don't want to wither in storm's tempest
My hands are fighting life, blood, breath flurried



Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Poetry form - Rubaiyat, hosted by Frank Hubeny.  This is an interlocking rubaiyat - AABA, BBCB.  Inspired by seeing a black raven in the garden during our cold winter night.  

27 comments:

  1. You’ve painted a chilling picture, Grace, with the raven’s piercing eyes and ‘bill poised for killing’, and the howling wind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That winter vortex is like a hurricane of cold. I like the phrase about the wind "kniving" the field.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! That is amazing! I felt the chill in the air and I wanted to get back indoors. Scared in case I made contact with the Raven's beady eyes! 💕🙂

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yep, stay indoors is the way. Hate the cold.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These are really stark and cold... goes so well with the sense of death and murder. The cold becomes almost a metaphor for death itself.

    I thought they work both separately and together like I think they should if you write in Omar K's original style.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Excellent rocking of the prompt. I admire your clever rhyme scheme. The piece brought to mind, BLACKBIRD by Joni Mitchell.

    ReplyDelete
  7. There is something magical about a Raven

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think about the raven on the fence when the wind chill is -50F
    This coldest night is a killer ...fighting to stay alive.
    Nice one Grace

    ReplyDelete
  9. I like your semantic field of knives and blood and death, and the link with coldness. The raven holds it all together.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Such a bitter coldness you describe, Grace. Hope you warm up soon.

    ReplyDelete

  11. The 7th bird Rubaiyat today ! Wow, what is it?
    An English poet wrote about "Rooks" -- also of raven family,
    and associated them with death. Must be a winter thing.
    I think of Ravens as small , playful, clever and a bit wise.

    But your rubaiyat was effective: I felt the cold, the struggle, the threats. Nicely done.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love the contrast between the first and second stanza. The raven waiting to kill to survive and you trying to survive and not be killed.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Beautifully penned Grace, I can hear the howling wind and love the link from flurried breath back to snow ��

    ReplyDelete
  14. This has an engaging dark edge to it. A bit of a sting, like the cold you depict. I really enjoyed the read, though I shivered a bit... :-) I got inspired and wrote two Frost inspired rubaiyat love poems – one dark, one filled with light.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This is brilliant, Grace - love your images of knives and death. Also, it is tempting when so many syllables are required to fill the lines with fluff, but you have managed to keep your lines solidly poetic.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Very late to the bar this time :(
    Oh Grace....I am chilled to the bone reading this. And this line
    "As howling wind knives the fields, dry, stinging" really cuts the words to become a sound and a feeling!

    ReplyDelete
  17. the eyes blue with salt was very piercing, the coldness very stark and vivid, love the interlocking rubaiyat, it has an exquisite melody

    ReplyDelete
  18. You convey the cold quite well with your words Grace.

    ReplyDelete
  19. All those harsh sounds and the staccato rhythm really reinforce the ominousness.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Your consonants in both stanzas are striking - the p's and k's of the first highlight the brutality of weather and nature, while the s's and w's of the second call me to the bursts and stops of wind storms. In a form that can so easily go awkward with rhyme, you've blended them wonderfully.

    ReplyDelete
  21. The thought of life being "unburied" after death was haunting. I love the image of the wind knifing the fields. The second stanza really speaks to the struggle of the cold. Hope you're staying warm and safe in this horrible weather we've been dealing with.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This is so vivid--the cold, the raven, the wind, but I particularly liked these (more metaphorical) lines: "as we hurried
    through burdens & loneliness, stacked, storied-"
    Beautiful rhythm, too.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Very crisp images in this - love how you selected your words to fit the tone and feel of the cold.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The sounds reinforce the sharpness of the images.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This has so much imagery that hits home the conditions the so many face in such cold weather. All change now?

    ReplyDelete

I try my best to reciprocate comments and visits.
I allow anonymous comments if you have difficulty posting them. Thank you & have a good day!!!