It is said that you should never place
your faith in a sensual woman in red
with full lips on a smooth-skinned face,
who sells bitterroot to raise the dead.
Her naked heart was born to darkness,
counting corpses in an eternity
of death and wicked business
running the affairs of the city
of bones from her cloud chamber
in a darkness more than night;
a blow fly is her familiar,
released from her malice box as light
entertainment, feeding on death’s slagheap
while the living sleep.
Kim M. Russell, 15th August 2019
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Artistic Interpretations with Margaret: La Catrina & the Wall of Books
Margaret is back today with Artistic Interpretations. She tells us that she visited Montclair, NJ recently, and had lunch at Tacoria, where she was intrigued by their wall of books painted with a portrait of La Catrina. She photographed the titles for this prompt, which Margaret says lends itself to the dark side but need not be dark. She has given us some background information to the portrait of La Catrina.
The challenge is to use ten book titles in a new poem, using the portrait in some way as inspiration.
I loved both Cloud Chamber and Malice Box as titles.. you did wonders with them. What a great poem!
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Thank you, Kerry!
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The beginning line draws one in and the ending is just as strong. Obviously the books were selected for the artist’s subject which I thought was a cool idea and you delivered !
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Thank you, Margaret!
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“in a darkness more than night; a blow fly is her familiar,” such a richly woven poem this is, Kim! 💖💖 I loved every word 😊
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Thank you, Sanaa! 🙂
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I love her running the city of bones from her cloud chamber as the living sleep.
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Thank you, Sherry. I enjoyed exploring the dark side with this poem.
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Wow, Kim. This gave me shivers. You fit those titles together sooo well, it read smoothly for me.
..
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Thank you so much, Jim. Giving you the shivers was the plan, Mwahahaha!
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Oh wow… so many things to love about this piece, especially how you ended it. What creativity with book titles!
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Thank you so much, Susie!
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Well done in using titles that I avoided and with a cracker of an ending on ‘death’s slagheap’!
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Cheers Robin!
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Wickedly delicious, Kim!
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Thank you, Sara!
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“running the affairs of the city
of bones from her cloud chamber
in a darkness more than night;”
and
“released from her malice box as light
entertainment, feeding on death’s slagheap
while the living sleep.”
WOW… those are strong images.
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Thank you!
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