Always
Keep looking up
Let your mind soar above
The obstacles you face below
Arise
The time has come for you
To seek new beginnings
And shake off your
Cocoon
Butterfly Cinquain
Always
Keep looking up
Let your mind soar above
The obstacles you face below
Arise
The time has come for you
To seek new beginnings
And shake off your
Cocoon
Butterfly Cinquain
Commit to always keep going non-stop
Singing a song only your heart knows
Clinging to a belief deep within
That will give your soul the wings to fly
Syllablic Verse
(Based on this poem by Emily Dickinson)
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,”
–Emily Dickinson
prompt for the day isn’t exactly based in revision, but it’s not exactly not based in revision, either. It also sounds a bit more complicated than it is, so bear with me! First, find a poem in a book or magazine (ideally one you are not familiar with). Use a piece of paper to cover over everything but the last line. Now write a line of your own that completes the thought of that single line you can see, or otherwise responds to it. Now move your piece of paper up to uncover the second-to-last line of your source poem, and write the second line of your new poem to complete/respond to this second-to-last line. Keep going, uncovering and writing, until you get to the first line of your source poem, which you will complete/respond to as the last line of your new poem
This poem was inspired by my daughter Laura’s viewing of a moth in flight. (She actually wrote a poem that she gave me permission to edit, which I did and transformed it into this Tanka.) The moth she watched was flying free and graceful until he got too close to the light. Then, zap! He was gone….sad. She and I saw kind of a lesson in this, in that we should be careful of getting too close to things that attract us because they might not be good for us and we could suffer for it!
Some good information found on why moths are attracted to light:
“Moths frequently appear to circle artificial lights, although the reason for this behavior remains unknown. One hypothesis to explain this behavior is that moths use a technique of celestial navigation called transverse orientation. By maintaining a constant angular relationship to a bright celestial light, such as the moon, they can fly in a straight line. Celestial objects are so far away, that even after travelling great distances, the change in angle between the moth and the light source is negligible; further, the moon will always be in the upper part of the visual field, or on the horizon. When a moth encounters a much closer artificial light and uses it for navigation, the angle changes noticeably after only a short distance, in addition to being often below the horizon. The moth instinctively attempts to correct by turning toward the light, causing airborne moths to come plummeting downward, and resulting in a spiral flight path that gets closer and closer to the light source.” “Why Are Moths Attracted to Flame?”. npr.org. August 18, 2007.