A mistake I’ll make with an incomplete poem is saving it without any notes regarding its source or inspiration. That may be because I’ll plan to finish it as soon as the next day, but it presents a problem when I discover a draft weeks or months later. I have no idea what started the line of thinking for this poem three weeks ago. Most likely a photo – NASA, perhaps – or even a prompt led me to the second stanza. I have a vague memory of a distinctive blue, but that’s it, so I stayed with colors. And since I’ve been inspired by photos from APOD lately, I went back to March 24th to find this photo to help me with that. (btw… I can’t help seeing the face of a petulant child in this photo – to the right – so who knows what ideas that might spur.)
NGC 602 – Astronomy Picture of the Day
Sirens of Time
You can’t ignore
the violet of time misspent
haunting you, refusing to fade.
Or the cache of unspent
time taunting you
with its blue luminescence,
while pending mistakes loom
in infrared, shadowless,
without warning.
Closing your eyes
to shut them out
is futile, stars appearing
on your lids pressed tight,
their hues singing to you
across time.
The optional prompt for Day 20 of National/Global Poetry Writing Month is to write a poem that involves rebellion in some way. Since I have no idea what Ken-of-three-weeks-ago was thinking, I’ve finished the poem for him. Let’s pretend that meets the prompt.
rivrvlogr 
I too saw that child straight away. It is interesting to watch clouds and see shapes. Most see different things.
As to misspent time, let us hope we learnt something from those events.
miriam
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I see faces everywhere – in wall patterns, floor tiles, the dogs fur when the wind is blowing. Everywhere. I just wish I had the skill to draw what I see.
Yes. It’s truly misspent if we don’t learn anything from it.
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I think the you of now did justice to the originating you.
That petulant kid is amazing. From a vague impression, one gets a clearer and clearer, and more and more detailed, impression with every look. I suppose the subconscious starts filling in details.
‘So, if that’s what you want to see, let’s help you see it properly!’
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Thanks. I think you have a point about the details.
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Love the color associations in this – and the infrared shadowless pending mistakes. Finishing this poem was no mistake – this poem collectively yields a vivid rosy hue for me.
I clearly see the petulant face … perhaps annoyed to be instructed to pick just one star? I like the notion of stars pressing on my eyelids, knocking to be let in …
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Thank you, Jazz. I had fun with this.
And yes, too many stars to choose from, but then that’s a good thing.
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I saw the child in the photo. I love the colours and moods in the poem.
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Merci!
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I like this a lot, and can also see the child’s face. Interesting!
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I usually see faces after staring for a while. No problem with this one.
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A violet melancholy…we are always so hard on ourselves. (K)
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Our desire to improve can be a good thing – most of the time.
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I like “their hues singing to you
across time.”
I see that child, and also an entire figure. I tend to see faces in things, too.
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Thank you, Merril. I was pleased with that line.
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🙂
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The unannotated scribbles and prompts are great to return to. Sometimes they are easy to recall, at others they become something new, which is a discovery and who knows where it might lead!
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I have tons of mysterious poem parts – you reconstituted this one beautifully
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I have–more than a few times–discovered some piece of my own writing, sometimes in nearly finished form (and sometimes clearly a very early draft) that I had absolutely no recollection of ever having even started. And I can’t blame alcohol or drugs, either, since I rarely use either, and almost never to excess. Maybe advancing age? Naaaaahh…
I see the kid, and I know that I’d never try to capture any of those blues.
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