Sunday, October 17, 2010

The Magpie Bus Contemplates a Door


Go to the Magpie Tales site to read other responses to this prompt.
Poetry Bus poems can be found here.

I was bound & determined to combine the Magpie & the Poetry Bus this week. The Magpie prompt, as usual, is a picture (see below). The bus prompt, given by the science lady herself, NanU, is thus

For this week's Bus ride, instead of suggesting a topic to write about, I'd like us to change the poem-writing environment. Write your poem in a place and time and circumstances that break with your usual thing.

I didn't see any reason why that wasn't doable. However. The attempt with an actual pen and actual paper in the bedroom on Friday night was a bust. And just now (sadly, not a different time at all), in the yard with my netbook was not much better. In fact, this is my first attempt – which had nothing to do with the Magpie:

I sat in the yard on a Sunday
No it could not wait until Monday
I thought and I thought
And it all came to naught
My poem for the bus still a "someday."

But I persevered. I sat and stared at clouds. And birds. And bees (which did not produce any verses about safe sex). I talked with the neighbors and watched Dr. M put away the bocce set. And then I just started typing. So here you go – a Magpie Bus.






Half Open Door

I'm sitting here watching
that half open door -
beckoning beckoning.
I don't know where
or when or how
or even if I want.
Do I want?

Perhaps tomorrow
I'll set fear on the mantel -
the mantel in that
other home with
that other door,
firmly shut to me now.

With that thought comes
another thought:
I shut that door myself.
What harm can there be
in a half open door
beckoning beckoning?

I go to the door.

21 comments:

  1. ah and will you now open it all the way or close it all the way...that is the choice...beckoning beckoning....

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  2. Wow, thought-provoking! And lovely use of 'mantle'.

    And so enjoyed the tales of trying to write in different places.

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  3. Love the idea of trying to write in a different place. I have found myself eagerly seating myself in the same location in my home, actually very unlike me when creating my tales... typically it would be somewhere beyond the window... out in nature. New can be exciting, tho.

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  4. Nice wordsmithing there, bug. What an interesting metaphor for life, the half-open door. Are we in or out?

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  5. Yes, fear is best left on the mantle. Nice write for the Maggie Bus!

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  6. Thanks for telling us the back story, Bug. I enjoyed picturing you there in your idyllic back yard watching Dr. M work, and the contrast with the angst in your conflict about the beckoning door. I agree with Titus, too, that the mantle stanza speaks especially to me. And I loved your limerick!

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  7. Don't go through the door. Repeat. Do not go through the door.

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  8. I like the fact that the poem reveals we are masters of our own destiny, doesn't it?

    I agree with Titus, nice "mantle".

    Kat

    P.S. Liked the limerick too.

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  9. I couldn't stand it - although you were all very nice about my "interesting" use of mantle. I meant mantel. Sigh. I had to fix it.

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  10. beautiful, open all the way.. what shall come shall come :)

    lovely magpie! mine is ~here~

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  11. Go!
    you have allowed yourself
    and you know you want to ! So...Go!

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  12. How did you manage the sense of menace?

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  13. performance anxiety..happens to great poets like yourself
    mantle mantel..shmantle shmantel
    I love your dedication
    me...i would have gone for ice cream
    what?...it inspires

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  14. Nice one, Bug. I like the anxiety, and facing it.
    Like you, I was hoping to make something of this week's Magpie, but nothing came of it. Maybe next time!

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  15. Love the ending, for it leads one to reach even further -- to continue -- the light beyond the open door calling-- beckoning , just a great poem

    Joanny
    http://thedowsersdaughter.blogspot.com/

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  16. "set fear on the mantel" was utterly superb thought....
    Clever you to club the two and springing such a superb post off it...
    Loved it:)

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  17. A thought provoking piece. How doors effect life. Mine, sadly, has one of those springs where it swings both ways constantly.......!

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  18. Twas worth the effort bugmeister! Mystery and intrigue and atmosphere and veiled menace.Brava!

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  19. The best thing about doors, is they let you out - or - in depending on your viewpoint...
    I liked your 'someday' bus poem. :)

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  20. No harm... as long as we have life in us, and actually even beyond, those doors are ours! I like this, Dana!

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Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear what you have to say!

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