April 18, 2018

  • Hills Are Afire

    For today's National Poetry Month Scavenger Hunt entry, I took a page out of murisopsis' blog and wrote a blitz poem. A blitz poem doesn't have to rhyme, but there are strict rules on the wording. You can probably figure it out by reading my poem, but if you want to know how this poetry form works, click this link to the blitz poem on murisopsis' blog and you can read all about it in her explanation. I did rebel with the rules for the title, though; I thought I was to use the first word of line 3 and the last word of line 47 and constructed the entire poem to end up with a workable title. And then I reread the rules and discovered it was supposed to be the first word of line 47, not the last. I didn't like that title and didn't want to rewrite the entire poem, so I stuck with my mistaken title.

    The prompt for today was #7: Fire. The poem was inspired by a trip I took out west in 2015. There were fires all over Washington, Oregon and California (and other states, too, but those were the three states we were in). A haze of smoke hung over the entire west coast and some national parks we visited had closed off large areas while they fought the fires there. The worst one I can remember was Crater Lake. I was so happy to finally find an area that was above the smoke so I could breathe! Driving down the highway through the Redwood Forest, we came around a curve and spotted a beautiful, secluded beach. The sun was setting through the smoky haze and the whole world turned to gold. It remains one of my most beautiful and cherished memories.

    9.13 CA sunset

     

    HILLS ARE AFIRE

    Fire in the forests

    Fire on the hills

    Hills dry and dusty

    Hills bare and brown

    Brown soil blackened

    Brown grass crackling

    Crackling flames

    Crackling like crows

    Crows taking flight

    Crows black as soot

     Soot in the air

    Soot-smudged landscape

    Landscape heat-distorted

    Landscape wrapped in smoke

    Smoke to the horizon

    Smoke makes eyes burn

    Burn off the detritus

    Burn so life can return

    Return in richer soil

    Return to arid land

     Land of hope and promise

    Land of broken dreams

    Dreams of easy riches

    Dreams of fields of gold

    Gold that’s for the taking

    Gold just lying there

    There where miners rushed

    There in California

    California burning

    California in the sun

     Sun that never darkens

    Sun that never clouds

    Clouds that never threaten

    Clouds that hold no rain

    Rain that never falls

    Rain to quench the flames

    Flames that keep on burning

    Flames that roar like wind

    Wind shifts to the west

    Wind blows toward the sea

     Sea is calm and peaceful

    Sea sparkling in sunset

    Sunset through the smoke

    Sunset glowing golden

    Golden lies the ocean

    Golden soars the sky

    Sky and sea afire

    Sky and sea at sunset

    Sunset

    Afire

Comments (2)

  • This is a wonderful poem, Vi. I'm sorry you had to endure the smoky Western air -- but that's a fact of life these days. We're already into fire season, although we haven't had any bad ones yet this year. Sunset Afire is one of my best memories too -- a setting sun through smoky air turned the sea magenta!

  • You did it! a title of Hills and Sky wouldn't be bad but your title is better... The sunset through the smoke is spectacular as so many of Janet's photos attest.

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