Cameo
Not much
was asked and not much
was given. All that was taken
forever
gone still returns in dreams slowly
seeping up, filling empty
spaces.
December 2011
Posted for Sunday Mini-Challenge at Real Toads
Kerry's challenge today is the cameo form: "The Cameo is a purely syllabic form consisting of six lines with the following syllable count: 2, 5, 8, 3, 8, 7, 2. It is English in origin and is well-suited to a brief portrait in words, or character-based piece."
Image: White Gold & Blue Agate Mother & Child Rhombus Cameo
via google image search
nice...for so short it is packed with feeling...and the creeping back into fill spaces...not sure that is always a good thing...smiles.
ReplyDeletehappy sunday hedge
This is a little piece of magic. I love the different formats people have given to their poems: yours is a perfect cameo oval.
ReplyDeleteYour words are sincere, and precisely chosen - the last three lines pack a huge emotional punch.
Thanks for playing along with us on Sunday.
aw! very, very nice.
ReplyDeletePerfectly done. The format appears difficult, and you did it so wonderfully. Packed with content.
ReplyDeleteOh, Witch. You know I feel this one. Brilliantly said in so short a space.
ReplyDeleteI love the way this poem turns with every line, a mini-galaxy. And the cameo is beautiful, too. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteHappy Sunday, bri. Thanks for always visiting.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to all who've been so supportive these last few days. You are treasured, each one.
Oh, this even looks pretty in its oval form! I love the words "seeping up, filling empty spaces." This is how it is...
ReplyDeleteYes... this is beautiful and very moving.
ReplyDeleteSmooth as silk. Just gorgeous, Hedge.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful form and picture ~
ReplyDeleteHappy sunday~
Your piece both looks and reads just like a little jewel!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! A gem of a cameo poem!
ReplyDeletebeautiful. i feel the stillness of reflected sorrow. the phrase 'in dreams, slowly' ... melts in my bones like liquid magic.
ReplyDeleteYou carve out a place for mystery to move and shift, transform. I hope you have a good week.
ReplyDeleteThis beautiful poem obviously came from someplace even deeper than deep. (and your labels are practically poetry in themselves)
ReplyDeletep.s. ...Was just swept away by the photo of your grandfather Ragnar and his dog. It is a magnificent portrait, a real treasure.
ReplyDeleteA cameo says everything with the slightest reference of suggestion (the first sentence); you fill it in with the simplest button in the second sentence. Only epitaphs have greater compression. Fine work, Hedge, and a good stab at naming the vent where all those florid dreams are rising from the heart's underworld. - Brendan
ReplyDeleteLovely. The verse goes well with the cameo and it's subjects.
ReplyDeleteThanks all.
ReplyDelete@Lydia: I'm glad you enjoyed my grandfather's pic. It's one of the few relics of my childhood I ended up with after the family vultures picked the bones of my grandparents' apartment clean. I think of him a lot this time of year, making that trip, which took months back then, across the huge cold ocean from Gothenburg to the UK, across the UK by rail to Liverpool, and then across the Atlantic to New York, and another rail trip to Chicago before finally arriving at an Aunt's whom he'd never met, an 8 year old boy alone, leaving mother and father (forever) and every friend and place he'd ever known. It helps me remember how small my own challenges really are.
Never heard of this form, but I loved this, hedgewitch. It sort of reminded me of nature abhorring a vacuum - even the forever sort.
ReplyDeleteThe photograph is stunning!
beautiful! your writing always gets inside me. ♥
ReplyDelete