“The mountains are so dominant
that some days the people refuse
to look at them as children
turn away from the fathers who beat them”
Jim Harrison – Songs of Unreason
I am beaten in my heart
the pulse racing in another direction
to climb is to clamber, slip-sliding fall
ascension of vertigo, the swoon that swivels
upside-down and sea-sick in the sky
we people of the valleys cannot turn our eyes away
ever rising from the horizon, clad in clouds
moody as a chameleon – livid, vivid purple peaks
casts from blue to yellow and paler still
wafery opaque in wishful moments of its vanishing
but the bluff is called, the mountain never moves
resolute as rock, tormenter of flesh
the sacrifices it has blessed through time
are never enough
Joining Jilly for her pick of Jim Harrison prompts on Day 12 of 28 Days of Unreason
Also heading for the Imaginary Garden and a colourful Tuesday Platform
I like the way the sounds of your word choices played so beautifully together and added another level of feeling to tackling that ascent.
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lovely comment Rommy – thank you
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The mighty mountains! Great words for its humongous personality.
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Thank you – I especially liked the notion of ’eminence’
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I enjoyed the climb up the mountain and back again.
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‘the going up was worth the coming down’ as Mr Kristofferson once said
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You have made very effective use of colour in this magnificent scene.
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thank you Kerry – it was a coincidental match for the Tuesday Platform
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Dizzying poem – love it! Livid, vivid and the bluff is called – peaks in a poem full of great lines and images.
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lines from an Acrophobic – from your pitch perfect prompt
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It is wonderful living underneath the gaze of a mountain. One’s eyes return to it again and again. I like the idea of vertigo as being “sea-sick in the sky”.
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not first-hand but imagine it thus!
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I enjoyed the flow of words here…and so true a mountain never moves.
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thank you Vivian – your flowing reference was what I’d hoped for [but it also made me mindful that some mountains are deadly to the valley folk as currently in Haiti & Guatemala – sometimes hard to keep blogging in the face of such realities – hence my Considerations page ]
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A thoughtful thing to do-I’ve just had a look.
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The mountain can be the shadow we live under… it can inspire our awe, or erupt in explosions… living close to a mountain marks us in a special way.
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indeed!
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I love the vertigo as being seasick in the sky!
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thank you – head over heels and sky becomes a blue sea!
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“I am beaten in my heart” — that is just fantastic.
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was lucky that line came to me to start me off for this prompt – thank you!
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Beautiful language. I like the way this flows.
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a momentum that is more like rolling downhill than climbing – many thanks Merril
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swoon that swivels…wafery opaque… delightful images!
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your poem too had such a great spin 🙂
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kaykuala
tormentor of flesh
the sacrifices it has blessed through time
are never enough
Gigantic and menacing it continues to appear formidable. Great close Laura!
Hank
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all those animal and human sacrifices one way or another! – thank you Hank
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Very vivid imagery — well done!
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Hello, welcome and thank you Jo
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Such beautiful imagery in this Laura! I love every line!
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