AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes

AUSTRALIA ~ The Antipodes
I love a sunburnt country / A land of sweeping plains / Of ragged mountain ranges / Of droughts and flooding rains / I love her far horizons / I love her jewel-sea / Her beauty and her terror / The wide brown land for me / ~ Dorothea Mackellar (1885-1968)

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Thursday, April 10, 2008

Silver Wings ~ for Poefusion Prompt #9

Pic ~ Australian Weather Map from Educypedia
~
Write a sestina using these end words: blue, weather, daughter, me, shape and point.
~
Even though the map predicts stormy weather
The sky sleeps in a mist of palest blue
I am watching my eldest daughter
Walking toward a whole new shape
A whole new milestone, a new point
When silver wings sweep her away from me
~
Perhaps this is really a new life for me
When I can expect unsettled, strange weather
This could be a time when I revisit an old point
Where my inner skies weep in blue
Where clear pathways struggle for shape
Lost without my daughter
~
Life has tossed rugged questions to this precious daughter
Many have sprung from me
I was wrapped in chiselling a selfish shape
Rarely heeding the warning signs of her weather
Rarely noticing if her skies were crystal blue
My life was all my point
~
And now a critical moment is a sharp point
Where once a child is now a grown daughter
Reaching for her own personal space of blue
Without her mother, without me
She is flying into realms of unknown weather
Where perhaps the clouds will begin her shape
~
I so hope she finds no hollow shape
Buoyed by a heartless, cold point
May kindness be the soul of any weather
Lifting, protecting my dearest daughter
Just peace of mind is all I ask for me
May sanctuary become the meaning of blue
~
Please keep regret and sadness away from blue
I know I chose a misguided shape
If you must, punish me
But give her the right to her own point
Shower smiles and laughter on this daughter
And may her gentle silver wings sail every weather
~
Just give to me a piece of blue
But if stormy weather is the fate of my shape
The high, god-like point please leave my daughter
~


N.B. I have used the sestina pattern from Poetry Form- The Sestina It varies in the tercet with the following pattern: (6 2) (1 4) (5 3)

3 comments:

J. S. Clawson said...

Well you handled the challenge so very beautifully! What a lovely Sestina. My children haven't left home yet, however my wife and I continually discuss how the nest may be after.........thanks for sharing a wonderful and caring story! :-)

poefusion said...

Gemma, this was a great tribute to your grown daughter. Has she seen this yet? It's beautiful. My daughter hasn't left home yet either but, she and I discuss it all the time. I will be lost without her uplifting spirit and loud voice echoing through the house. But, it is a fact we must all face as our children grow. I can relate to all your feelings here as I have them too. Have a nice day. And, thanks for giving this form a try. You managed this well.

Anonymous said...

You are quite creative in fitting your own words with those given ends words. part 2 is particularly great in my opinion

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