Today's dual prompts from Write Better Poetry and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a "response" poem (to someone else's poem or to your own), and (2) write an "aisling" poem. An "aisling" (pronounced ASH-ling) is a type of poem from Ireland in which a spirit or dream vision who represents the land or country where the post lives, and speaks to him or her about the homeland, usually of hard times and troubles that can be overcome. I took some liberty with the concept by having a spirit speak to me from another country through my TV, a kind of supernatural PSA. The "response" part is where she praises me for writing poems about her homeland (two of which I wrote this month and one last month).
Aisling
You fell asleep to news of the war tonight,
and now you wake to me on your screen.
You think I am an actress you have seen,
but I am not. I am Young Mother Ukraine.
I want to thank you for the poems you wrote:
the boy at the white piano in Kharkiv,
Tchaikovsky's home destroyed in Trostyanets,
the bloody teddy bear at the station in Kramatorsk.
But you can do more.
Like my Irish cousin, the Aisling, I am a spirit
who brings word of our troubles and travails
but with a message of hope that we will prevail.
It is hard, though, when I've passed over so much
devastation - apartment blocks with gaping holes,
mass graves, civilians shot dead in the street,
soldiers making a last stand in the Mariupol steel plant.
We cannot do it without your kindness ―
food, clothing, supplies, and yes, even weapons
to defend ourselves against a madman.
I became a spirit when I tried to escape
and a missile hit the train station.
My two children were with me―
see them hiding shyly behind my skirt.
My son still wants his teddy bear back.
and now you wake to me on your screen.
You think I am an actress you have seen,
but I am not. I am Young Mother Ukraine.
the boy at the white piano in Kharkiv,
Tchaikovsky's home destroyed in Trostyanets,
the bloody teddy bear at the station in Kramatorsk.
But you can do more.
who brings word of our troubles and travails
but with a message of hope that we will prevail.
It is hard, though, when I've passed over so much
devastation - apartment blocks with gaping holes,
mass graves, civilians shot dead in the street,
soldiers making a last stand in the Mariupol steel plant.
We cannot do it without your kindness ―
food, clothing, supplies, and yes, even weapons
to defend ourselves against a madman.
and a missile hit the train station.
My two children were with me―
see them hiding shyly behind my skirt.
My son still wants his teddy bear back.
And on the subject of Ukraine, I want to remind everyone again about the fund-raising project from The Poet Magazine, an anthology called Poetry for Ukraine, a book with over 250 poems from poets around the world, including me. All profits from the book go to the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. Please learn more here: https://www.thepoetmagazine.org/poetry-for-ukraine
1 comment:
Very powerful today again. Your Ukraine poems are so strong.
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