Ode to a Hug

There are times, left alone
with thoughts and memories,
when up sneaks grief,
a vulgar thief
of quietude,
squeezes salt and tears
from a freezing heart.
And there you are, warm as blood,
enveloping stony skin,
thawing emotions locked within.

Kim M. Russell, 2017

Image of statue on King’s Cross Station found on Pinterest

On Day 7 of The Poetry School’s NaPoWriMo prompts, we were writing odes.I wrote mine on the long journey to Wales on Friday.

In modern usage, an ode is simply a poem in praise of, or dedicated to – well, anything!  For this prompt, it didn’t have to be a classical ode with strophe, antistrophe, and epode – just a verse or two singing the praises of an object, person, place, feeling or something else entirely, if possible, something unusual, or something that not everyone sees as positive. (It’s also a good form for irony and sarcasm.)

The example poem given by The Poetry School was by Sharon Olds, who has just released a whole book of odes, from which ‘Ode of Broken Loyalty’ was taken.