Thanksgiving for my friend is still my song
though stumbling lost beyond the road once known;
the days we walk alone draw shadows long.
I woke & rose too late to find the wrong
surprised that in the night the wind had blown.
Thanksgiving for my friend is still my song.
Although we parted once, we still belong;
the stubborn shoot unbidden yet has grown.
The days we walk alone draw shadows long.
Above us stars we counted wildly throng,
their muscle darkness stretched from bone to bone.
Thanksgiving for my friend is still my song.
We've traveled far yet come back here along
the pathways where the singing bird has flown.
The days we walk alone draw shadows long.
The light of sinking sun our hopes prolong,
with colors sharp & quick but short the loan.
Thanksgiving for my friend is still my song,
The days we walk alone draw shadows long.
-Andromeda Jazmon
I have been in such a rush lately, between finishing up term papers and big projects for grad school, developing new curriculum for the media center, and preparing for the holidays. I haven't had much time for writing poetry. When I heard my sisters the Poetry Seven were working on another project, however, I had to find time to jump in. We've all been working on villanelles, and today they are revealed on all our blogs.
Here are the other six Poetry Seven blogs:
Tanita Davis
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly R. Fineman
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Tricia Stohr-Hunt
Friday Poetry is rounded up at Wild Rose Reader.
Here are the other six Poetry Seven blogs:
Tanita Davis
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly R. Fineman
Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Tricia Stohr-Hunt
Friday Poetry is rounded up at Wild Rose Reader.
13 comments:
Oh, Andi! So happy and relieved am I that you were able to find the room in your mind and days to join us. We would have been horribly incomplete without you!
This is a touching, touching piece, especially this:
We've traveled far yet come back here along
the pathways where the singing bird has flown.
The days we walk alone draw shadows long.
Thank you thank you for this and for being with us today. Happy Friday...
I'm so pleased you were able to join us, because I love the lovely singing quality of your villanelle, and our circle would have felt quite broken without you and your work!
It is lovely to walk with you, my friend.
Lucky for us that you found the time to do that. I love this. It has a real yearning at its core. I want to put it to music, too.
I love the last stanza, but I find myself repeating the first line over and over.
Thanksgiving for my friend is still my song
My song is for the six of you. I'm so glad you were able to squeeze this in on top of all your work. We wouldn't have been complete without you.
the stubborn shoot, unbidden, yet has grown.
Now, that right there's a lot like love. I'm SO GLAD you were able to join us.
Andi, this is like one of the sad, haunting, but beautiful songs I love so much (I'm thinking 100 Years by Five for Fighting, for example). So much of this is just wonderfully vivid and precise. It's hard to choose favorite parts, but here are a few of mine:
Although we parted once, we still belong;
the stubborn shoot unbidden yet has grown.
and
Above us stars we counted wildly throng,
their muscle darkness stretched from bone to bone.
and
with colors sharp & quick but short the loan.
Thanksgiving for my friend is still my song,
The days we walk alone draw shadows long.
OK, that's like half the poem but I couldn't cut any more. Hooray for all seven of us walking together, not alone!
Oh man. The stubborn shoot unbidden. I love that so much!
The line "The light of sinking sun our hopes prolong" paired with your gorgeous photo SLAYS me. And I'm with Jules---the sense of longing is palpable. Yowza.
Gorgeous photo, and as others have mentioned, a haunting sense of longing pervades this lovely poem. Lucky for us you were able to create it given all your other demands. Thanks!
Beautiful poem. My partner and I are Americans in New Zealand. We just had a big Thanksgiving party, but rain threatened to spoil it!
My heart aches after reading this, in a good way, the way you know you hurt hard because you love strong.
Thank you for sharing this.
As always, a perfect combination of picture and words. I will send a link to this poem to a friend for whom I give thanks, because, "Although we parted once, we still belong."
Thank you for giving my feelings such beautiful words.
Thank you all for your kind words. This was such a wonderful project to be part of. Mary Lee I'm glad you were reminded of your friend. I was thinking of a very old, dear friend of mine while writing this one.
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