More than a door, this opening
we do not simply enter but go by the way
of wings, a jump, a tumble even
the slip sliding launch: Gangway!
and then such strangeness
in upended elements; time lingers
with bated breath, long enough
to catch alight in a blue flame
to sink to the seabed, like a leaf
to grow in an earth of glories
to think – and so the door opens
we do not simply leave but go by the way
of shock, a leap of logic, a slap even
and all thoughts of the portal vanish
For this Tuesday's Poetics prompt, I followed Anamol through the Portal
PoetryPix 
I love the thought of your portals being more like trapdoors than portals… just like this we tumble through life, just walking those one-way streets without even noticing.
the switch of consciousness takes many forms!
AH! That is so good — there’s more than just one way to make that entrance/pass through a portal. I love the rhythm and the jumps here, especially the pause and action at the word “Gangway”. You have captured it so well in a succinct manner. 🙂
your prompt let me swing over and back over the threshold of the creative zone – thank you for that
I love the energy and surprise in this poem, Laura, the ‘slip sliding launch: Gangway!’ and the shift to the ‘strangeness in upended elements’ almost as if one has slipped down a wormhole into another dimension, with vibrant colours of a blue flame and a leaf ’in an earth of glories’. I think I prefer to ‘go by the way of shock’ or a ‘leap of logic’ – they leave no time to think.
spot of with the rabbit hole feel – the portal to the creative zone but how easily we come back through a door by way of logic!
After we have left the portal it does seem to vanish. That challenge to get through it is over.
the challenge is to get back to where we sometimes can go where words just flow
Love this. So many ways to enter (or be thrust into) a portal.
thank you Robin – all the ways except stepping through and hence we struggle to write or draw and wait for the Muse to give us a push 😉
Sometimes the portals require a leap of faith! I liked your poem.
They do indeed – well said!
This makes me feel like any minute a Cheshire Cat will appear- Marvelous Laura!
I guess that’s what we wish for when waiting for the Muse
Yes.
I love this turning point in our journey:
go by the way
of shock, a leap of logic, a slap even
and all thoughts of the portal vanish
Thank you Grace
A great description of portals of life we must go through! … and the door slams shut with no memory of the previous one! Very nice!
had not considered that interpretation – interesting
Though we are born under a veil of forgetfulness, losing much of what we learned in previous lives, I believe that older mature souls do not forget what they glimpsed within portals seen and imagined; rather they gather more pieces to the puzzle of life, catalog them, and save that knowledge and experience for the next life.
you too Glenn have seen what I have not
When we’d like to just step through, we slip, slide, and fall…Gangway! It can all be rather disorienting.
especially as we yearn to stay in the creative zone
Do we jump or are we pushed? (K)
maybe pulled but somehow think a veil is lifted – that left brain critic
All thoughts of the portal vanish. a profound thought, that when one passes through a passage, it becomes as it were, redundant and inconsequential, the opening that once loomed so large is subsumed just to the fact of being where we are, in a new place. Wherever you go, there you are. Interesting to think how an opening is more than a door. Do we perish with the passing, or are we changed?
I see the portal as entry into creativity and the door the return to everyday
stunning!
I like the changes of pace, Laura- the sudden surprise of being somewhere different, the pause to watch a leaf, time stretching, and then the movement on. So much of life is like that – the change builds up unnoticed, and then suddenly tips us into somewhere new and different.
thank you for your feedback Sarah – yes time to see things but also in such a different light
The ending is so powerful, “we do not simply leave but go by the way
of shock, a leap of logic, a slap even
and all thoughts of the portal vanish” and we forget that we made the leap, up in the stratosphere previously unimaginable…
I think we remember only too well but try too hard to return via the portal of the Muse
I enjoyed this active journey into upended elements. I hope no one shows up to slap me out of it. Very little chance of that. 🙂
we slap ourselves back out of the zone most of the time
I saw a shamanic journey or perhaps a spiritually guided hallucinogenic trip. I loved all the techniques mentioned in the previous comments – all those action verbs denoting sudden movements. They grounded the poem somehow even in the act of keeping it moving.
I really appreciate your feedback Christine – you have tuned in to the intent – I guess when I think of tapping into creativity it is such a journey you described even without the aids of pill or poppy.
Some doors can be portals of transformation, requiring us to assess everything from a new perspective.
we might even transform into our creative element!
I’m so hooked on that poem, Laura, I keep returning…
Many hugs
thanks for being hooked Marina – as a creative person you know how to enter through the portal 🙂
…like you! 🙂 😉 xoxo
❤
❤️
I love the ‘bated-breath’ mystery of this doorway. A vivid write!
I had not quite seen it that way so thank you for the insight
😊