Marble nights, or: Haunting

A ‘Magnetic Poem’ tanka

Wanna try? Click here.

angel bleeds color
desiring eternity
father's ghost haunting
in joyless kiss lingering
marble nights' old prisoner

Notes

  • For this poem, I decided to use the ‘Poet Set’ on the Magnetic Poetry website, which, I believe, is the first time I have done so;
    • I find that switching between the sets of magnets makes magnetic poetry more interesting;
  • This poem was, in part, inspired by my having lost my own father nearly three years ago, but it’s not about me or about him at all – it’s an entirely fictional piece;
  • I once again opted for a tanka, rather than a haiku;
    • As I’ve written before, the extra two lines (14 syllables) provide a greater challenge, as well as a larger canvas;
    • I’ve really taken to writing magnetic tankas;
  • As an additional challenge to myself, I deliberately wrote this as an alphabet poem;
  • I searched for and found the featured image only after I had written the entire tanka.

30 thoughts on “Marble nights, or: Haunting”

    1. Kerfe,

      In all honesty, I don’t think that idea would have come to me if I hadn’t seen so much of your artwork. ‘Marble nights’ was our child.

      โค
      David

  1. I love how that sounds: in joyless kiss lingering / marble nights’ old prisoner. Those magnetic words really like you, mate. And you know how to make them dance. Or weep.

    1. Thanks as always, my friend. You know, whenever I load the magnet page, I always feel a mix of – what on earth do any of these words actually mean, and isn’t this a stupid exercise? and hmn… I do so wonder what will come of this crazy exercise this time around! How interesting!

  2. Scales are an exercise designed to improve fingering on the piano keyboard. They are played up and back down in all the different keys. For example, the key of “C” uses only white keys starting with “middle C”: C, D E, F, G, A, B, C, B, A, G, F, E, D, C. Other keys use one or more of the black keys… the sharps and flats. The object is to play faster and faster. Monotonous and tiring! Thankfully, my teachers never required me to do them. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Ten years of lessons were somewhat wasted on me with my limited talent. I used to play in church sometimes and was a soloist in the choir, but I haven’t played in years. The last time I practiced was to play Christmas carols on my keyboard as a Christmas present to my mother a couple of years before she died. It was worth the effort because it made her happy.

    1. Cheryl. that’s interesting… thanks for explaining.

      Monotonous and tiring!

      This is not how I would describe doing an alphabet poem ~ I found it very engaging, actually!

      โค
      David

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