Tuesday 29 July 2014

POETRY JAM - THE ORDINARY

“Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” - John Lennon

Poetry Jam this week is all about the ordinary made into the extraordinary: “This week I want you to choose one of the ordinary things around you and write about it. Look at this ordinary thing or scene in detail and notice what is there. Is there some unexpected beauty in its design or the way it fits in with its surroundings? Perhaps by doing this you can make it something extraordinary.”

Here is my offering, an ordinary moment made extraordinary when friends finally become lovers…

A Flower in the Moonlight

We started playing with words again tonight,
While the singer articulated softly our innermost desires,
And our hearts vocalised dumbly our sweetest bitter dreams.
The room so small, the light so dim,
The night so deep, the short space between us,
So immense it could in light years be measured...

We’ve played this scene so many times before,
Two actors on the stage fumbling with props
Struggling with our lines, trying inarticulately to improvise
Forgotten speeches that we would not dare to speak
Even if we had remembered them;
Your eyes avoid mine while a flower blooms in your hand.

Above us the air’s a prism, while a hundred light-bulb stars shine on a celluloid sky:
A room with walls of music, the pasteboard moon for a ceiling.
If we could only bridge the gap between us, dissolve the ice
If you could touch me now, think of what would be gained!

You stretch your hand, as years of silence crumble
A thousand nights, dead, are resurrected
And at last, this time on cue, you offer me
A flower in the moonlight…

24 comments:

  1. what a beautiful beautiful poem!! picturesque!!

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  2. friends and lovers...a dangerous combination...because it seems to change the whole nature of the relationship though....the friendship though will be what gets you through though...the care...its a cool moment where that relationship tips over into something greater....

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  3. that offering reminds me of an old saying that striking a matchstick can dispel thousand years of darkness in a room....so many beautiful images here...a lovely poem..

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  4. This is gorgeous, Nicholas! Love can indeed transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. I love how you describe the ordinary room before love's touch and how everything changes with the gift of a flower.

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  5. Aww... I'm so glad it turned out the way it did!

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  6. Oh a wonderful description of an ordinary moment becoming something extraordinary. Love the images in this. Thanks for linking it!

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  7. I can say that living with extraordinary love helps make each day ordinary...in a good way!

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  8. Very touching poem, and the ending with the offer of a flower in moonlight is a wonderfully sensual way to end the telling of this experience!

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  9. as years of silence crumble - Love this and the images that you paint. Brilliantly crafted

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  10. Luv those walls "made of music" have a nice Wednesday

    Much love...

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  11. This is incredibly romantic ~~ sigh.

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  12. Great poem with fantastic images.

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  13. What amazing word pictures you paint. A lovely poem, romantic and heartfelt!

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  14. This is beautifully described, with great tension until everything changes with the closing lines. Really well done.

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  15. A sensitive and touching poem.

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  16. Wonderful poem about the ordinary becoming extraordinary!

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  17. Tender and warm.Beautiful picture.Bridging gaps and dissolving ice. I like the courageousness of this. A lovely one !

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  18. It reminds me of a story that I have watched from too close as how friends became the lovers. Your description is beautiful, and getting a flower in a moonlight is startling.

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  19. Very romantic when something extraordinary emerges from the ordinary. And even better when the new love remains a good friend.

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  20. I just love this one...romantic and nice!

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  21. You did such a great job of building the tension, for a moment I didn't think it would be broken, and then such a lovely ending line--years of silence crumble..beautiful!

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  22. I love the end verse..really stunning..

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  23. so sweet..you have written this beautifully...no more words..:)

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