Lost Bear
Lost bear
collapsed under the streetlight
drunk on smells
of trash and tea leaves
full of cold beans, coffee grounds,
dead things; silent
you sleep heavy, turning garbage-grey,
wishing for berries, silverslipping
riverflash of trout,
white water, winter-wild
repose in caves of dreams;
to wake in warm dark
with wholeness welling,
two cubs pushing,
life scrabbling
in place of
what's forever
gone.
~December 2012
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Sunday Mini-Challenge: Dolls, Revisited
Margaret Bednar brings us more photographs of the amazing dolls created by a group of enterprising and very gifted students. The doll I chose was created by Elizabet Puksto.
Process Note: I normally don't read others' prompt responses before writing, but today I read Fireblossom's first. Rereading this now, I think I owe some of this poem to her take and original theme. Thanks, Shay.
Optional Musical Accompaniment
Image: Photo by Margaret Bednar of Doll by Elizabet Puksto
It's an easy scene to imagine and I love how you take it from almost dark whimsy to nature to life.
ReplyDeleteoOo! I'll be back to comment on the fine poem, but first I want to watch and listen to Emmylou! *swoon*
ReplyDeleteOh, this hits my heart. The poor bear rummaging through garbage and dreaming of fish, remembering winter-wild caves. Your closing lines about what is forever gone are heartbreaking. Poor bears. We have a bear living in the woods at the end of our street. One miserable night in winter when it was sleeting, I could hear him crying dismally, cold and hungry. I felt so sad for him.
ReplyDeleteYes, this is the perfect take on this doll - the sense of abandonment and loss is palpable in your words. It always makes me sad to see images of bears going through trashcans - something noble has been lost there.
ReplyDeleteI can see the relationship to FB's but your poem stands well on its own. The image of the lost bear is so sad. Sort of like a lost childhood. I guess the teddy bearishness (is that a word?) of the doll made me think of this.
ReplyDeleteSo displaced, this poem speaks for so many - dreams don't always come true.
ReplyDeleteIn the garbage, under a streetlight, longing for and dreaming of the might-have-been-if-only.
ReplyDeleteSigh.
So true for many a bear, Joy, so true.
K
drunk on smells
ReplyDeleteof trash and tea leaves
full of cold beans, coffee grounds,
dead things...wow really great description in this hedge...moving and haunting...i feel for the lost bear...
I realize the word 'deepspeak' doesn't exist ... it should ~ it describes your poem.
ReplyDeleteinteresting imagery; you truly make me feel for the bear—stuck to rummage through garbage instead of pristine waters.
ReplyDeleteLet's try without the Typonese...
ReplyDelete" wishing for berries, silverslipping
riverflash of trout,
white water, winter-wild
repose in caves of dreams;"
Mercy, you can turn a phrase, woman. Thank you for the shout-out; I am going to use it to cover the bald patches I have just acquired. This poor bruin...you have drawn so well that it wants what it would naturally surround itself with; but it has been reduced to scavenging, and is losing its natural magnificence in so doing. Your poem fits the doll to a tee--crumpled, gray, but embodying the echo of something it would rather be and was meant to be.
Thanks Shay--the lostness of wild things in a manmade hell also makes us lose things, and in so many ways, as in the atrocity dominating the news atm, we are the bear. The Emmy Lou is one of the saddest songs about loss ever written,I think, and a personal favorite--glad you enjoyed.
DeleteGorgeous language and aching heartbreak. I love this, Hedge.
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite part:
ReplyDelete"silent
you sleep heavy, turning garbage-grey,
wishing for berries"
Wow, does this ever describe motherhood:
"with wholeness welling,
two cubs pushing,
life scrabbling
in place of
what's forever
gone"
You captured my soul in this poem.
This is a beautiful poem, and beautiful song choice too. k.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of Alaska and the fragile view of life!
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written :D
I wish she could have it all again.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful!
ReplyDeleteYou know, I did not *see* a bear until you now.
This just throbs with beauty.
I am with Susan...I wish she could have it all returned to her.
ReplyDeletewonderful in its shapes and sounds. you've brought home the loss 'turning garbage grey' and you've done some magic with the ending 'two cubs pushing' which brings on the next round of life.
ReplyDeletebeautifully written, as all of your poems are. it made me sad, though.
ReplyDeletethose dolls are all works of art. stunning!
♥