Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ The Wall



 
“We build too many walls and not enough bridges.”— Isaac Newton


SOURCE


“Graffiti is usually a protest — ink on walls – or has a reason for being naughty or aggressive.” — Cy Twombly


       Midweek Motif ~ The Wall


How do you react when you encounter a wall? Are you happy or do you feel left out? Does it look like an obstacle, a barrier or is it more like a symbol of safety and strength?


The wall has been a part of human civilization, either to keep things within or to wall out unwanted elements.


You are to write about The Wall; visible, invisible; real or imaginary; and even historic walls like the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall will do.


It might also be about your garden fence if you have one.


A couple of wall poems for you:

Mending Wall
by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."


Scaffolding
by Seamus Heaney

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

Yet all this comes down when the jobs done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.


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 ~ Balance)



7 comments:

  1. Thanks, Sumana i really enjoyed the Frost poem. Will be back in a bit with my poem.

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  2. Marvelous poems above and in response! Great prompt, Sumana.

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  3. Luv the prompt Happy Wednesday poet friends

    much love...

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  4. Well I don't know about HAPPY writing. But perhaps necessary writing (necessary writing about not writing!). xx

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  5. Hi Sumana! I’m so late but it took me awhile to get my muse moving. Thank you for hosting !

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Vivian for the wonderful poem you shared :)

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