Good Friday I slept very badly
my imagination
a brief changing of gears
as if I had a fever - perhaps a pause
in the furnace of some desert wind

the devil whispered to me
I had passed the original
spawning ground but it is hard
to judge from much of our folklore
to give up ones urge to wander

the edge of the Atlantic
like the trembling wing 
of some drowsy bird
the uncertainty of Lily 
a prolonged adolescence, the dreamy 
look of young girls

24 thoughts on “Village diary”

1. I enjoyedhe village diary that you’ve patchworked, Laura, and was especially delighted to see you’ve taken lines from Laurie Lee’s Village Christmas and Other stories. The first and final stanzas are lovely.

   1. thank you Kim – Lee is always a source of the lyrical but was surprised by how Klee fitted the bill too

2. I love love how you patched the last line… so perfect.

   1. interesting how both of their thoughts turned to that!!

3. This is deliciously dark and enticing, Laura! The second stanza stole the show .. for me! 💜💜💜

   1. many thanks Sanaa – I had not really registered how the dark crept in but its there as undertow

4. Well, isn’t this interesting. Kinda threw me till I read your commentary. Haven’t done cento poems for quite a while. Think you got more “rules” than I did, once upon a time. Kind of a salad, if you allow. Odd (pardon) but your selection seems more narrow than my custom, while your integration is more expansive. Interesting to see how you worked this out for yourself.

   Curious. How did you feel from this process? Did you learn anything from the process? Pardom me being nosey. Nicely done.

   1. Stuck to the patchwork title as opposed to calling it a cento because it is prose not poetry based. I wanted to only ‘sew together’ just two writers in order that we can hear them both clearly but in some kind of duet. This was one of the most exciting projects to do – just amazed by how they conjoin, despite time, age, nationality differences and it illustrates that not only is language universal but that words are used, reused, reordered etc such that essentially we must all be plagiarists of a sort!

      1. Thank you Laura. I’m glad the process was productive and pleasing for you. Cento or patchwork, a rose by any name. Although me don’t think source as prose vs poems, really don’t matter either. Stubborn me thinks good prose IS poetry. So good, standing on your head, or not. 🙂

         1. dizzying either way!

            1. amusing

5. Village life is a mixed bag for sure. The devil always seems to be lurking about in them. I’m glad you set it near the water.

   1. smart observation Lisa!

      1. Thank you, Laura.

6. Amazingly done, Laura ❤

   ~David

   1. thank you David

7. I love the pensive moodiness of this…just like a diary. (K)

   1. I really appreciated this comment as I had not noticed that before

8. Enjoyed your amazing take, Laura. Thanks for hosting. 🙂

   1. glad you enjoyed Kitty

9. Such depth, I like the self-exploring tone of this whole piece!

   1. thank you – that’s a nice observation

10. That first stanza resonated with me! 😄I really like the imagery of a drowsy bird with a trembling wing! You found some great lines! 👏👏

    1. that imagery of the Atlantic struck a chord with me too Tricia – thank you

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