 |
| Eugeny Kozhevnikov |
Medicine for Melancholy
With these drops
I absolve you of blame.
Taste---I've spent weeks
straining the river
straining the river
mixing honey and rue
steeping laudenum
cinnamon,
to hide the strength
to cover the bite
of salt and
broken stars.
broken stars.
I'm the intruder
the stranger on the flow
the stranger on the flow
harmless or dangerous
as you, let in from the trenches
in a downhill moment
of melancholy truth;
you should do as I say.
Taste---nobody cares
what we do here
splashing like dolphins
in the dark of a dream.
in the dark of a dream.
~November 2013
posted for real toads
Challenge: Get Listed with Ed Pilolla
Ed Pilolla, one of the most ingenuous, genuine, and gifted young poets in the blogosphere, provides us with a list of words today having to do with rivers and love. For a complete recap of the words, see above link. Thanks, Ed--this poem was only an embryo before your suggestions.
Optional Musical Accompaniment
Image: Eugeny Kozhevnikov, via Mindtripworld2 on facebook
I've spent weeks straining the river... These words among many beautiful images strike me as saying how much some will do for love, and often for scant reward. Your poem speaks to me about loneliness, and dreams , and that healing can be a long lonely process.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kerry. Your comment makes me think of one of my favorite book titles--Carson McCullers' The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter.
Deletedo as i say, not as i do? good advice.
ReplyDelete.. honey, rue, laudenum, cinnamon ~ potent mix makes for powerful poetry. This one is amazing.
ReplyDeleteI agree-I'm enchanted!
DeleteI love the power of the opening lines, the strength. Marvelous, Hedge.
ReplyDeleteWonderful. Especially open and close. And middle. k.
ReplyDeletethe bite of salt, melancholy truth, dark dream...weave a tangible sadness....beautiful lines...
ReplyDeletei must say that your attention to the sense of taste really pays off. i am with this river in a way that is unexpected and incredbily intimate. beautiful oral pleasure:)
ReplyDeleteFantastic writing, culminating in four closing lines that left me speechless.
ReplyDeleteI'll have one of those laudenum concoctions please...
ReplyDeletenice...what a journey eh? upstream in those dreams...also like the line break in harmless or dangerous/as you. the bit that stuck out at me was the Taste...and what comes immediately after as well.
ReplyDeleteThis is rich and erotic...kind of breathless here. Wow...beauty in those to "taste" portions!! Love this Hedge!!
ReplyDeleteAnything can happen "in the dark of a dream"...I love that line.
ReplyDeleteK
^ what Kay says above, and the first two lines had me hook, line, and sinker.
ReplyDeleteYour lines about spices, I could smell them. Your lines about water, I could feel them, from ripples to an ocean. This is a beautifully rendered poem, Hedge... drawing lots from the prompt words, but also making the words mingle seamlessly with your thoughts. Brava! Amy
ReplyDeleteThanks, Amy. Your appreciation is really felt on this end.
DeleteAs I read this, it made me think of the precarious balance a poem has to maintain between real emotions and the alchemy of turning them into art. How the poem maintains the balance is the magic, the goods -- the title of this poem. Virgin shamans often died for lack of balance during their initiation trials, and suffered lifelong fevers from the strain of it. Of living between devils and angels. "Harmless or dangerous" indeed, this work, both and neither, and in the end it doesn't matter anyway though we couldn't live without it. Thanks for the bucket-work here.
ReplyDeleteYou're most welcome. So many things are about balance, and contrast is often the tool that defines it. Appreciate your insights, B.
DeleteOh, Hedge. The first stanza alone made me cry. Really cry. Then the ending matched the start. Just wow. (and great vid. I had heard the song but never seen the video.)
ReplyDeleteI find I have more to say. The best poetry moves (or sneaks or barges) right past our defenses and goes right to the heart of things, before we even know it. Then it does its thing, changing how we feel or think or exist in the world; maybe by a degree, maybe much more. Or sometimes it just tells us, "you are not alone in this". This is why I will always love heart in poetry more than cleverness, but if I can get both, and workmanship too, then I must be at Hedge's.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Shay. You know how much this means to me, coming from you.
DeleteI like this HW. I took the time to read your comment policy and I really liked that. I must say Ditto to that.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sam--commenting can get to be a very onerous thing--I like to keep this whole blogging thing enjoyable for all concerned. I appreciate you taking the time to read something not on the main page, as well as leaving your thoughts on the poem. Keep it real, that's what I say. ;_)
Deleteunaware of the list; I had not yet looked at the prompt (having been in my own little world the last few days) - so I have no sense or impression that this came from a prompt. It reads to me like an incantation, a spell, a magick.
ReplyDeleteThanks, M. As usual with me, the poem came before the prompt, but I tried to work a few of the words in to its benefit. I'm not big on word lists, generally--usually people tend to all tromp down the same path. AFA being off in your own world--imo, inner tourism is the cheapest and best. ;_)
DeleteThis really is wonderful!
ReplyDeleteSo many beautiful images come out of your work. Really wonderful work
ReplyDeleteI needed this medicine for melancholy. Today has been rough..."nobody cares what we do here splashing like dolphins in the dark of a dream" What a beautiful thought.
ReplyDeleteThanks, and so sorry to hear that, Susie. I know that wheelchair has got to be getting old.
Deletewow!! This is fabulous. My favorite
ReplyDeleteThis is a sad but beautifully rendered poem with an amazing ending.
ReplyDeleteThe impact of your last two lines called it home for me. I love, and I do mean love, the way this poem's momentum ends in splashing. The action behind the taste---the wet you call in, from drops to straining and mixing and flow, anchor this piece with clear motion and voice. Really wonderful poetry.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Jane. I really appreciate your take, and always feel glad when you enjoy my work.
Delete