Caged Moon (a septet)

Willows, the anchors of life,
felted with silvery grey,
captured the moon and his wife
in a basket canopy,
where daddy longlegs rattle
and candle flies do battle:
at the end of a hot day.

Kim M. Russell, 19th July 2018

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My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Septets

This Thursday, Frank Hubeny is looking after the bar in a week when we are celebrating dVerse’s seventh anniversary, in honour of which the theme for Meeting the Bar is any seven-line poem or poem with seven-line stanzas.

Frank reminds us that we’ve done septets before and that he recently discussed Chaucerian stanzas and rhyme royale, which are seven-line poems in iambic pentameter.

He says that our poems do not have to be Chaucerian stanzas; they don’t have to rhyme; and they don’t have to be about anything in particular. They just have to contain seven lines or have stanzas of seven lines each.

45 thoughts on “Caged Moon (a septet)”

  5. For me….I read this and feel like I’m lying somewhere on the ground, looking up through the canopy of those willow branches……….and then I look more closely at this almost mythical illustration and I begin to think of the wedding of the moon and nature – represented by the deep rooted willow. The more I read this one, the more ethereal it becomes 🙂

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    1. I’m so pleased you enjoyed it, Lill. It’s been one of those days and I wasn’t sure if it would meet the challenge. I think I need to read my own poem – it might help! 😊 I’m off to bed soon but will be back to read and comment in the morning.

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    1. Thank you. All poems written to prompts are drafts and will probably metamorphose into something else. I appreciate your thoughtful comment and have made a note.

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  22. I’m with Kathy on this, I like the nusery rhyme tilt and feel to this, taking the ordinary surroundings and imbuing them with mythic wonder (and why not? It is all really pretty wonderful isn’t it?, I mean the overwhelming complexity of just a willow, let alone all of those spinning objects in the sky). This one grew on me a lot, a must read aloud selection.

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    1. Thanks for reading and commenting, Lona., and for paying such close attention to my poem. You’re right about the complexity of willow; we have two huge corkscrew willows in our garden and I love looking up at the branches. One of the cats loves climbing them too!

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  23. Excellent image! I immediately loved it as your poem started with the word ‘Willow’ and also everytime when someone think of moon as a guy, I am like ‘Woah’ This poem has a lot of my favorite words- Willow, canopy. Also “candle flies do battle’ – Love this line. Would you like to explain what unearthed this line?

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    1. Thank you, Jay. I have always loved the idea of fireflies (also known as candle flies) but I haven’t seen any for years. I imagined angry gnats lit by moonlight standing in for fireflies and candle suited muted moonlight better than fire.

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      1. That is a beautiful thought, thank you for explaining. It’s sad that I haven’t seen any fireflies since my childhood too, says something about the nature of our environment. Doesn’t it?

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