This poem is a distant hill.
This poem is a welter of indigo water.
This poem is geese whiffling overhead.
This poem is a rolling, breaking wave
of corn the colour of honeycomb,
washing against the grassy spine
of an ancient sleeping dragon,
a landslide washed green.
This poem is a distant hill.
This poem is a lively chatterbox of a river
flouncing skirts of blue and glassy grey surges.
This poem is a welter of indigo water.
This poem is a rush of air through wings,
white as Arctic snow, a flash of blizzard
twisting and turning,
climbing and falling
metamorphosing shapes.
This poem is geese whiffling overhead.
Kim M. Russell, 21st February 2019
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Wordy Thursday with Wild Woman: Hannah’s Boomerang Metaphor Form, also linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night: Ah sweet youth…, also linked to Poets United Poetry Pantry
Sherry reminds us that, some time back in 2014, our Toad-friend Hannah Gosselin created an interesting form called the Boomerang Metaphor Form. She began with the “This poem is – ” format, and added some intriguing features, in which the first statements are expanded in separate stanzas, and then boomerang around to be repeated at the end.
Sherry has reiterated Hannah’s premise and given us an example of one of her own Boomerang poems. She’d like us to take a run at it, and feel free to improvise and make it our own and, if we don’t feel like tackling the whole form, we are free to try another angle. Some people like to simply begin “This poem is -” and proceed from there.
This is so filled with action… I almost imagined to be inside a Turner painting with the violent waves and the wide open sky..
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High praise indeed! A Turner painting! Thank you, Bjorn!
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I love this form….the first stanza’s lines becoming the grist for each of the following stanzas.
“This poem is a lively chatterbox of a river
flouncing skirts of blue and glassy grey surges.”
These two lines I especially love….thinking about a river flouncing her skirts – a wonderful image!
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Thank you so much, Lill! I’m afraid I didn’t follow the instructions for writing the form correctly and missed a stanza off the end. I did go back to change it but it didn’t seem right, so I left it. It’s a boomerang that doesn’t come back!
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“This poem”….is a GLORIOUS rush of wonderful images, beating wings, earth and sky. It filled me with delight! I especially love the indigo water! Thank you for trying the form, Kim, and birthing this absolutely breathtaking poem! Yay! It makes me happy.
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Your poem is alive and I love the feeling it evokes as I read it ❤
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Thank you kindly, Jade!
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You are welcome, Kim.
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Such wonderful word-mastery, Kim. I am, however, stuck on the whiffling geese. In my world they flew overhead as well, but I guess the honking drowned out the whiffling! lol
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Thank you, Bev.
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What a beautiful image you describe with your words! Lovely Kim 🙂
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Thank you, Christine! 😊
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Oh gosh this is filled with colour, action and movement, Kim! ❤️ Especially love; “This poem is a rolling, breaking wave of corn the colour of honeycomb, washing against the grassy spine of an ancient sleeping dragon, a landslide washed green.” 🙂
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You are too kind, Sanna! Thank you. 😊
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Such beautiful images you’ve created, and what an interesting form. I love the repetition of “this poem is” and then on to more stunning images. I didn’t think of Turner, but yes, I can see that.
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Thank you, Merril!
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I love the sounds of your lines specially:
This poem is a lively chatterbox of a river
flouncing skirts of blue and glassy grey surges.
This poem is a welter of indigo water.
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Thank you, Grace.
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Lovely poem. I have to try out this form. 🙂
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🙂
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This really is lovely Kim. There is nothing quite like that beautiful sound of geese whiffling overheard, is there?
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Thank you, Robin! I hope they whiffle soon!
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Grassy spine, flouncing skirts, flash of blizzards… sigh. Beautiful
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Thank you, Margaret!
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This poem is jam packed with scrumptious images Kim, even sounds. Excellent writing!
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Thank you so much, Rob!
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Nice description: “grassy spine
of an ancient sleeping dragon”
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Thank you, Frank.
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i just read another Boomerang and then read yours, yours is just super wonderful and delicious to read! i so love the words you assign to each stanza, describing something so familiar but in such a magical way. “washing against the grassy spine
of an ancient sleeping dragon,
a landslide washed green.”
This poem is a distant hill.n,Kim you are superb!
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I’m blushing, Gina! Thank you. 😊 I was worried I’d overdone the ‘washing/wash’.
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Kim, the beauty of your poem knocked me over like a boomerang! LOVE your “welter of indigo water” and the “whiffling geese”…they definitely do whiffle 😀
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Thank you, Lynn! 😊
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You’re welcome 🙂
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Kim!! Oh, how I’ve missed your poetic voice!!
I made the mistake of pausing on the comments and saw Bjorn likening this poem to a painting and now I can’t unsee your poem as a painting…so beautifully visual…
A favorite image for me is of the metaphor of the dragon’s spine as the hill! So imaginative!
Thank you, so much for sharing your Boomerang!!
❤
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Thank you for reading and for your lovely comments, Hannah!
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Love it, Kim!
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Thank you, V.J.!
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Welcome
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A beautiful circle (K)
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😊
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This is so marvelous Kim.
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Thank you so much, Linda.
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I like your geese ‘whiffling’, Kim. I learned a new set of words, thank you. Those geese take dangers for which we would faint instead of trying. Small animal vs. the fury of nature.
..
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Cheers Jim.
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This poem, like so many of your others, is a gift to me as it creates for me very vividly a beautiful environment quite unlike my own (which is beautiful in a different way). As I am never likely to experience it in person, it’s lovely that I can do so through your poems.
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Thank you so much, Rosemary. I also enjoy experiencing different landscapes and cities around the world through the poetry of others.
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This poem is …. a beautiful depiction of the nature surrounding us.
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Thank you, Helen.
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I like the repetition of This poem is. The format worked well with your descriptions of nature. Well done.
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Thank you, Ali.
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I love this form, Kim…and what you did with it. Feeling nature with all our senses..that’s what’s evident here. I’ll try this boomerang form myself….one day.
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Thank you, Viv! 🙂
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🙂
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Back for another read, loving it just as much! Gorgeous writing.
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Thank you, Sherry!
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So vivid. Wiffling of geese overhead; a welter of indigo water. This poem is alive.
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Thank you so much, Sara.
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I enjoyed what all of the natural scenes you have shared in this poem – I especially like the geese.
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Thank you, Mary.
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you capture the migration with the boomerang style and the sounds of water and waterfowl – spiffing word ‘whiffling’
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Thank you, Laura! Here on the NOrfolk Broads water and whiffling geese are familiar sounds.
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This is vibrant and beautiful and I would love to hear it recited; it feels a bit like a hymn, to me.
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Thank you so much for reading and commenting. I will try to record it and post the recording with a link from the poem. It will take a few weeks as I’m visiting my daughter and grandson next week.
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Vivaldi’s Four Seasons came to mind as I was reading this. It filled me with the same rush of delight and capturing of the essence of a natural point in time as it promenades around us in all it’s glory.
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Thank you, Rommy!
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This poem is filled with imagery and is delightful to read. I can feel the rush of air …
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Thank you so much!
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Wonderful images in this beautifully imaged piece. I found the form mesmeric. And I agree with Trudessa: it is delightful to read.
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Thank you, Wendy.
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Lovely landscape coming alive…
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Thank you, Rajani. The hill represents my daughter and grandson, who live in a hilly place, whereas I live in a very flat landscape with lots of water and geese. The poem kind of represents the pull between both places.
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What gorgeous images. A whirling delight your boomerang.
Happy you dropped by my sumie Sunday
Much🌻love
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Thank you, Gillena, and much love to you! 🌼
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I love both the form and title of this poem, and the soaring images within it. I feel there are many hopeful voices at Earthweal today!
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Thanks Ingrid. The change in the weather makes all the difference.
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Excellent use of repition there Kim!
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Thank you, Kim!
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O! to welter and wiffle through this moving landscape! Love the personification, the spine of the dragon.
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I had forgotten the boomerang form and now want to write one. I love your title…….the imagery in your poem is just stunning. I loved every line and image. Spectacular.
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Thank you kindly, Sherry!
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Bardic identification is at root shamanic, self as world, poem as world personified, alive. The survey of landscape is deep and ancient here, welling both intimacy and power. No need for a speaker, a self, the land speaks for itself. Yes. – b
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🙂
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