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The Sunday Wordle

This morning I was stalking reading some of my favorite lovely blogs. My friend Gerry wrote a brilliant flash piece as a response to Brenda Warren’s Sunday whirl. I read the word list and looked at the paintings in my bedroom for inspiration. In the group is a oil painting in the school of Turner; a copy of his 1839 The Fighting Temeraire, done by a pupil, L Franks, bought at auction by my British father years and years ago.

This is it:


This painting was my inspiration for this little free verse:
Words:
Stain , Crawl, Shadows, Corona, Nail, Vessels, Brush, Bluff, Willow, Trembled, Stones, Mud

The Last Voyage
You and I sit beneath the leaves of the giant willow by the river on a sleepy summer evening. We look out into the distance, past the hills, to the bluff where the last evening corona paints dreams in shapes of yellow and orange and gold on the clouds. All sorts of vessels drift up and down the river in their sleep. We see one ship, a white and gold decaying ghost. The ship is being pulled in complete surrender by a rusty, restless tug. The tug trembles as it struggles with the weight of the knowledge of what its burden is.

Our thoughts entwine like tendrils as they spiral down into the watery realm down into the depth of history and the river. Holding hands we follow them and look up from our world of hazy light to see the white ship pass above us. Reaching up we caress her hull. We brush off some snails crawling underneath the timbers seeking her shade. A nail releases and sinks down to the bottom. Our gaze follows the nail as the white ship floats past. There we find the union flag flying over the stones and mud of the riverbed. We look around our new world of floating reflections and shifting shadows leaving the other vessels to float on by in the drowsy evening light, unmindful that we were ever there.

Check out the other brilliant pieces; especially my friends Margo Roby, De Jackson, Hannah Gosslin, and Jo Ann Jordan

Comments: 15

  • June 10, 2012
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    Yes! Lovely prose poem. My favorite line: “All sorts of vessels drift up and down the river in their sleep.”

  • June 10, 2012
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    I am amazed at how the Wordle population is growing. I can’t keep up with everyone. But I try and find new voices I haven’t heard as well. I like your interpretation of the painting. There is another word list I have also come to play with called Monday Melting by Rosemary Mint. My wordle is here:
    http://julesgemsandstuff.blogspot.com/2012/06/sunday-whirl-60-maiden-voyage.html
    But the companion piece was inspired and written first for Monday Melting.

  • June 10, 2012
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    Interesting juxtaposition of life above water with life below the waterline. I enjoyed reading this; it left me wondering who the narrators are and why they ended up underwater.

  • June 10, 2012
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    well done, a very descriptive piece.

  • June 10, 2012
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    Excellent write, Veronica…I especially like the thoughts curling together like tendrils…

  • June 11, 2012
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    “decaying ghost” is my favorite image.

    Six from San Miguel

    Six More from San Miguel

  • June 11, 2012
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    Love this, Veronica. My favorite line is this one: “Our thoughts entwine like tendrils as they spiral down into the watery realm down into the depth of history and the river.” Just beautiful. Thanks so much for the shout out. Very sweet of you. These words brought out some great writing this week. So happy to have gotten to read yours!

  • June 11, 2012
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    Veronica, a very nice prose poem inspired by that wonderful painting. If a picture paints a thousand words, your words produce their own masterpiece. Thanks for sharing this.

  • robert

    June 15, 2012
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    bloody good .

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