huge mushrooms
unsettle me
as caterpillars hanging
from maple trees
wooden path opens
and I
<back pocket> map
ring, metallic click
from somewhere afar
wafts, soft rock from
jukebox
my mind turn/s/table
steps turn brisk, nimble
as sparrows, I shimmy
to ballads
Happy 10th Anniversary!
Posted for dVerse Poets Pub - Quadrille with Brian Miller as our special guest host as part of our 10th year anniversary celebration. Quadrille is a 44 word post with a given word - JUKE. Join us when the pub doors open at 3pm EST. Thank you for your comments and visits.
Hello grace.
ReplyDeleteHUge mushrooms are home to pixies though. Ha. Those big web sacs of caterpillars though are a bit creepy.
the plays with turn/s/table is awesome. Lover the visuals, the sounds. it makes me a bit anxious by the end. our imaginations can run wild out there in the out these especially if we are alone but just on the cusp of where others are...only hearing a bit...without seeing what it is that this way comes....
brian miller
Hi Brian,
DeleteThank you for comments. I just hike along familiar road but do agree it can be unsettling when I am far off the beaten path. Have taken to hikes during the pandemic to help me cope with working from home. Thanks for hosting.
I do love mushrooms if they are the right kind. Not the toadstool kind, but the big porcini we sometimes find later in early autumn.
ReplyDeleteThe turn/s/table connection to the jukebox, but there is something unsettling, when I realize that the huge mushroom might be connected to atomic bombs.
Hi Bjorn. I love those shiny ones but yucks to the toadstool kinds. Funny thing is the hiking trails are within our city, but its surrounded by conservation of trees & wildlife. And I never thought of huge mushrooms that way. Just saw some yesterday in my hikes. Thanks for the comments.
DeleteI love how this turned from a hike to a dance with the lines:
ReplyDelete'my mind turn/s/table
steps turn brisk, nimble'
Deft and artful use of the prompt!
A hike in the woods is like a dance with nature. I love this Grace!
ReplyDelete“my mind turn/s/table”
ReplyDeleteOh, I love that. And your shimmy. :)
This is incredibly atmospheric and lovely, Grace!💝 I do so love the image of mushrooms ..provided they are the right type.. the huge ones unsettle me too. The reference to jukebox here is awe-inspiring.. I was speechless for a good few seconds. Gorgeous work! Happy 10th anniversary to you too!💝
ReplyDeleteNicely contained, there's a great sensuousness to the poem that is wonderfully alluring.
ReplyDeleteI love mushrooms ... but the comparison to caterpillars may have dulled my passion a bit! Great write.
ReplyDeleteI just saw a huge mushroom yesterday--it seemed out of place. I like the word play with turn/s/ table.
ReplyDeleteOh the many sanities that were kept by hiking through this pandemic! Huge mushrooms and caterpillars....trees.....and then the strains from a jukebox that comes into the "picture" in your amazing way with words "my mind turn/s/table" The mind shifts to the turntable in the jukebox....and turns from nature to the song, and I shimmy along the trail with you. :)
ReplyDeleteI like how you capture the mood - the images you use - the mushrooms, the caterpillars. Hiking can be both - so soothing and so unsettling. I love a good hike to calm my mind - for me the best way to relax. Very nicely written Grace
ReplyDeleteYou just never know what you will find when you take a walk in the woods. What a pleasant surprise to hear the "ring, metallic click" and jukebox music wafting on the air. Very relaxing read, Grace.
ReplyDeleteLuv your hiking mood trail
ReplyDeleteHappy Monday
Much💜love
I love tyhat shimmy in the forest. The trees dig it, too! Smiles.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteloving the mega mushrooms
ReplyDeleteA hike with all the right moves! Good one, Grace.
ReplyDeleteI live in a hiking/biking/floating/climbing city. Hiking also got me thru much of the pandemic. Glad to know you embrace ballads, the best is dancing cheek to cheek. Great poem.
ReplyDeleteGreat poem Grace! I like the play on words turn//table. Nicely done.
ReplyDeleteI went up to the mountain this past weekend and danced to natures song. Love that last bit about the mind turn/s/table.
ReplyDeleteA gentle transformation of mood from eyeing up those dangling caterpillars to finding music in your step. I could really feel the shift and the rhythm.
ReplyDeleteThank you for taking us on your hike Grace. I loved that you were so aware of your surrounding right down to the shimmy! I also wonder how big those mushrooms were. Lovely quadrille ☺️🌺
ReplyDeleteHello stranger and it is so wonderful absorbing your words again
ReplyDeleteWow. Enjoyed that.
ReplyDeleteI love walking in Nature and as a young woman did much in the way of hiking. Everything exciting and new when viewing it for the first time. I have been following you still but live has been challenging this last year...as you know. Do take good care.
ReplyDeleteI love walking in Nature and as a young woman did much in the way of hiking. Everything exciting and new when viewing it for the first time. I have been following you still but life has been challenging this last year...as you know. Do take good care.
ReplyDeleteLovely images in your quadrille - and I enjoyed the clever word play.
ReplyDeletePerfect enjambment, and "shimmy" - that's such a descriptive word, and so specific to how the reader might do it. So open to interruption. I love words like that.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting poem, Grace. :) The first part had a little "Alice in Wonderland" feeling for me. I also thought that the mind is turning table like the jukebox.
ReplyDeletefrom somewhere afar
ReplyDeletewafts, soft rock from
jukebox
my mind turn/s/tabl
Love this Grace! A throwback to those days of milling around the jukebox just tapping on its sides in line with the loud music!
Hank
"wafts, soft rock from
ReplyDeletejukebox"
I seriously cannot believe how clever and beautiful this is.
Amazing, Grace.
Yours,
David
you opened this powerfully, Grace. that line - imagining huge mushrooms - made me wince, too.
ReplyDeletethese lines are gems: my mind turn/s/table
steps turn brisk, nimble