Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Surprise!

“If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it . . . .” 

― Heraclitus

"Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise." ― Alice Walker

The Muse, Modeled by Nina Longshadow at Opus

Midweek Motif ~  Surprise!

If only life could be serene with no upheavals and few changes in relationships. No surprises, please! But for waking up from the laziness that threatens daily perception? Nothing is better than surprise.

When were you last pleasantly surprised?

Your challenge: Write a new poem with surprise as a recurring motif.  The poem itself need not surprise, but if you can wake us up a little through a pleasant surprise, do!

Surgery

Apparently With No Surprise 

by Emily Dickinson

Apparently with no surprise,
To any happy flower,
The frost beheads it at its play,
In accidental power.
The blond assassin passes on.
The sun proceeds unmoved,
To measure off another day,
For an approving God.

Surprise by Dorothy Parker

My heart went fluttering with fear

Lest you should go, and leave me here

To beat my breast and rock my head

And stretch me sleepless on my bed.

Ah, clear they see and true they say

That one shall weep, and one shall stray

For such is Love's unvarying law....

I never thought, I never saw

That I should be the first to go;

How pleasant that it happened so! 

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The Words Under the Words

BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

for Sitti Khadra, north of Jerusalem

My grandmother’s hands recognize grapes,

the damp shine of a goat’s new skin.

When I was sick they followed me,

I woke from the long fever to find them

covering my head like cool prayers.

My grandmother’s days are made of bread,

a round pat-pat and the slow baking.

She waits by the oven watching a strange car

circle the streets. Maybe it holds her son,

lost to America. More often, tourists,

who kneel and weep at mysterious shrines.

She knows how often mail arrives,

how rarely there is a letter.

When one comes, she announces it, a miracle,

listening to it read again and again

in the dim evening light.

My grandmother’s voice says nothing can surprise her.

Take her the shotgun wound and the crippled baby.

She knows the spaces we travel through,

the messages we cannot send—our voices are short

and would get lost on the journey.

Farewell to the husband’s coat,

the ones she has loved and nourished,

who fly from her like seeds into a deep sky.

They will plant themselves. We will all die.

My grandmother’s eyes say Allah is everywhere, even in death.

When she talks of the orchard and the new olive press,

when she tells the stories of Joha and his foolish wisdoms,

He is her first thought, what she really thinks of is His name.

“Answer, if you hear the words under the words—

otherwise it is just a world with a lot of rough edges,

difficult to get through, and our pockets full of stones.”

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

      (Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be Peace on Earth.)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ River

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Midweek Motif ~ River

"For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one."--Khalil Gibran

"No man steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he is not the same man."--Heraclitus

"Fame is like a river, that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid"--Francis Bacon


River is the lifeline of all ancient civilizations. It is the silent witness of the rise and fall of empires and races. Though not breathing river lives. No wonder it has become a powerful symbol in mythologies of so many cultures.

River has been personified as being that is worshiped, feared, revered. It has been treated as metaphors for life, fertility and time too. Its birth, its journey with twists and turns and its final transformation is awe inspiring.

Our dear poet friend Sherry Blue Sky's poem flows like this:

Mother Ocean / Small Stream
by Sherry Marr


Small stream, as you gambol down rocky cliffs,
burble and babble in swirling pools,
chuckle in the afternoon sunlight,
you meet obstacles
on your journey to the sea.

Drought dries up your stream bed for a time'
or logs crash down and clog your passage
with mud and debris
it might take aeons to dislodge,
before you can flow freely
once again.

And yet you persevere,
with confidence,
with courage, with determination,
with gaiety,
because forward is the only direction you know,
and your life's work is
to finally reach the sea.

You stay serene and focused,
because you know that,
whatever may befall you as you travel,
still, you are water,
each drop of you as necessary
to the cycle of life as the next.
You know, one day you will merge
with Mother Ocean,
will become one with her,
will immerse yourself in her immensity
for all time.
Already, even at such a distance,
you are one,
for, still and always
you are water.


I may add another voice in our river song today and that's of  Wang Wei's (699AD-761Ad) who was a Tang dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman. He was one of the most renowned men of arts and letters of his time.

A Green Stream
by Wang Wei

I have sailed the river of yellow flowers,
Borne by the channel of a green stream,
Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains
On a journey of less than thirty miles.

Rapids hum over heaped rocks;
But where light grows dim in the thick pines,
The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns
And weeds are lush along the banks.

Down in my heart I have always been as pure
As this limpid water is.
Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock
And to cast a fishing-line forever!


Another poem for today's theme is Emily Dickinson's My River runs to thee.

My River runs to thee
by Emily Dickinson

My river runs to thee
Blue sea! Wilt welcome me?
My River wait reply
Oh sea-- look graciously
I'll fetch thee Brooks
From spotted nooks
Say--Sea--Take me!


So how does river sing to you? Today I would like you to be inspired by Rivers and write your lines.

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 ~ Mercy. )