the seasons that travel in the air and soil
also stow away in the sea
in the hibernating sleep of great bears
the lazy summer sipping of the shore -
in fall turns to greedy grey gulps
it has woken from the wrong side
of the ocean bed – a turtle snapping
its sharp beak-like crests, while foaming
in rabid frenzy. the angry god
in its breast demands its annual sacrifice
once wintered back to digest in slumber
we check which house has been forfeited
to appease its wet hunger
Saffron – 6th April 2021
I used as a working title: Each year a house is lost, or partially wrecked by the sea (Instructions for Visitors, Helen Stevenson)
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Napowrimo Prompt Day 6:
Our prompt yesterday asked you to take inspiration from another poem, and today’s continues in the same vein. This prompt, which comes from www.hlwalrath.com, Holly Lyn Walrath, is pretty simple. As she explains it:
Go to a book you love. Find a short line that strikes you. Make that line the title of your poem. Write a poem inspired by the line. Then, after you’ve finished, change the title completely.I encourage you to read Walrath’s full post, which has some other ideas for generating new poems based on pre-existing text.