Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Modern Sisyphus

Today’s prompt:  Often between the title and the poem itself we find a short, credited quotation intended to suggest the poem’s theme.  Pick a short quotation from anything, one that speaks to you, and let it be your poem’s jump-start.


“It’s heavy to drag this big sack of what
I might have done.”
William Stafford


I had a dream once
born of a broken heart and desperation
wherein I stood in the middle of
a human circle, shouldering a bag of rocks
that I longed to set down, to leave there
in the care of the desert sun and the shimmery folk
who circled me, watching.

And so I did; set down the bag, walked away.
The circle parted. Before me lay the whole world;
in every direction rocks, as far as one could see.
I bent and picked one up before moving on.

Image borrowed from Wishfulthinking.co.uk

6 comments:

Brian Miller said...

true thAT On things we carry and on how we begin to see the world in new ways too when we put it down...

Out on the prairie said...

Even when we think we shed our thoughts a little always is with us

goatman said...

"I've seen things you people couldn't believe; attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I've watched seabeams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
All these things will be lost in time...like tears in the rain....now..to die." (a dove flies skyward as he dies)

Death speech by the replicant Roy in Blade Runner.


Memories lost in time as we
progress onward after death.
But recall of our life by others renews the brightness of a life once again.
Leaving an unforgettable
taste -- maybe that is the goal and the hope . . .

Anonymous said...

love this so much - really hits home!!

Pauline said...

Brian - funny how that prompt recalled that dream...

OOTP - it's true - we never completely put anything down

Goatman - I may live on in someone else's memory but will I be aware of it?

Barbara - the memory of that dream is still strong!

goatman said...

Food for thought . . . and poetry.