The second prompt for NaPoWriMo was to
Write a poem inspired by the song that was #1 on the day that you were born.
Well, apparently, number one in the UK music charts when I was born was Soul II Soul featuring Caron Wheeler – Back To Life (How Ever Do You Want Me). I will have to admit that that isn’t a particularly inspiring song for me. So I picked one of my favourite songs as a starting point instead. It is Haunted, written and performed by Poe (no, not Edgar Allan Poe, but Anne Decatur Danielewski, an equally fascinating and talented artist). Her song’s melody is precisely what I needed today, and the lyrics are beautiful. There you go then, my second poem for the poetry month:
Echoes
Please, I know it’s hard to believe
To see a perfect forest
Through so many splintered trees…
You and me
And these shadows keep on changing…
Poe, Haunted
Let us pretend
That songs go on forever
That there’s no need
To bring the caesura down
Onto the unsuspecting tongue
And make it lisp, or stutter
Or drawl.
Let us soak in
The buzz of passing cars
With no passengers,
The calming brew
Of anonymous voices
Eroding the shores of the city
With meticulous precision.
Let us fancy
There are more guiltless
Shells in blossom than
Restless pursuits honing in
On the remains of spring.
As though it never ceased
To ripple.
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 