Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ The Inanimate & The Non-Human

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Midweek Motif ~ The Inanimate & The Non-Human

"The place of the worst barbarism is that modern forest that makes use of us, this forest of chimneys and bayonets, machines and weapons, of strange inanimate beasts that feed on human flesh."---Amadeo Bordiga

"K2 is not some malevolent being, lurking there above the Baltoro, waiting to get us. It's just there. It's indifferent. It's an inanimate mountain made of rock, ice and snow. The "savageness" is what we project onto it, as if we blame the peak for our own misadventures on it."---Ed Viesturs

"We are all collateral damage for someone's beautiful ideology, all of us inanimate in the face of onslaught."---Benjamin Alire Saenz

"We cannot justify treating any sentient nonhuman as our property, as a resource, as a thing that we can use and kill for our purposes."---Gary L. Francione



For today's theme use the inanimate or the non-human as your subject. Build up an emotional connection with it.

You may give a fresh look to something very ordinary and uninspiring.

You may also write about something you care about, depend on or even afraid of.

Your poem may either be objective or from the perspective of your subject.

Let's check out the following poems:


Mirror

by Sylvia Plath

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful,
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But if it flickers,
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.


Fog

by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.


A Bird Came Down The Walk

by Emily Dickinson

A Bird, came down the Walk -
he did not know I saw -
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,

And then, he drank a Dew
From a convenient Grass -
And then he hopped sidewise to the Wall
To let a Beetle pass -

He glanced with rapid eyes,
That hurried all abroad -
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought,
He stirred his Velvet Head -

Like one in danger, Cautious,
I offered him a Crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers,
And rowed him softer Home -

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon,
Leap, plashless as they swim.


Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.

                             (Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be Marriage)

31 comments:

  1. Hey everyone,

    Woooooo hoooooo its time for Midweek Motif :D sharing my poem "The Chamber." Hope you all like it :D


    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  2. Thank you for the prompt - always good to see Sylvia in the mix - and Sanaa - can i have a dose of your happy :D

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  3. Happy midweek to each of you. My (inanimate) blog is having a difficult day.

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  4. Good Wednesday, Friends! Looking forward to another poetic week. Thanks, Sumana, for a challenging and thought-provoking prompt!

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  5. Thanks for todays prompt Sumana, Happy Wednesday everyone, here today, another season starts, The Season of Lent

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    1. snap Gillena - great minds! and you just pipped me in the comments too

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  6. not sure I fully understood the motif Sumana but have considered our relationship with Lent - I like these more loosely defined themes! thank you

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  7. Thanks for the prompt, Sumana. Looking forward to another week of poems.

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  8. Sigh. Not sure, if I have written a poem that covers this week's prompt.

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  9. Sumana,

    A magnificent prompt opportunity with so much scope...Mine covers slightly odd perspective, perhaps!
    Eileen

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  10. Good morning, kids. I am so tired I FEEL line an inanimate object this morning - this may be the subject of my poem, LOL........I will try to write something, and will be back.

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  11. Love this prompt. I thought I had so much to say but when I sat down to write I went rather blank. So, not sure if my poem is even a poem. Thanks though, Sumana for stimulating thought.

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    Replies
    1. aw...Myrna yours was such a lovely and priceless one...

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  12. Hello everyone! A very interesting prompt. Looking forward to read all the beautiful poems here :)

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  13. Glad I checked, 'cause I'd forgotten to post my poem. Oops.

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  14. Hello everyone! hope you enjoy my offering for today's motif. I"ll be commenting on others' offerings later tonight or tomorrow. A new class has started...wish me luck!

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  15. Hello everyone! hope you enjoy my offering for today's motif. I"ll be commenting on others' offerings later tonight or tomorrow. A new class has started...wish me luck!

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  16. Happy Thursday, everyone! My contribution is about snow. Here in Tennessee we had our third snowfall of the year which is unprecedented here. Usually we barely get any snow. I hope all is well with everybody!

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  17. Wednesday is so very special. What a feast of amazing words! Thank you friends :)

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  18. Thank you, Sumana - a wonderfully inspiring prompt! :)

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  19. I am a little late. Plz do read my take on the prompt. Here goes the link www.ramyaprao.blogspot.in

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  20. It has been a hectic week but I saved this in my email and am catching up now. I like this prompt and have enjoyed reading as many reponses as possible. In advance, Happy Valentines Day!

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  21. I am a little late. Plz do read my take on the prompt. Here goes the link www.ramyaprao.blogspot.in

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  22. Oops. I missed the prompt. Usually how long the link is open? Please enlighten me.

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