that
feeling of
childhood revolution
with both arms outstretched
and the whole world condensed
into horizontal lines of a spinning top
when you dare yourself to look up
at a sky that’s about to pop
think you’ll never stop
and then you
drop
onto a grassy spot
you roll over among daisies
and the world tips
on
its
axis
the same feeling
as our first kiss
a brush of lips
like a moth
at the window
a kiss that made us both
glow
in the autumn
chill my hand wrapped in
yours as we crunched up the beach
road our heads tipped back to look at
sequinned constellations tacked
across the sky – spinning us
into outer space
again
Kim M. Russell, 21st July 2020

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Revolution
Merril is back to tend the bar for this Tuesday’s Poetics. She writes about Independence Day, Bastille Day, and the history and use of the word ‘revolution’. She has shared extracts from a poem by Polish poet, Wisława Szymborska, ‘I’m Explaining a few Things’ by Neruda writes, and Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Merril asks us to write poems that explore revolution in some way, not particularly political, possibly about historical or modern revolutionary movement, the revolution of celestial bodies, or revolving motion in some way. We can also use a painting as inspiration or perhaps start our own poetic revolutions or invent a revolutionary new poetic form!
Oh Kim! You have outdone yourself with this one. I smiled as soon as I saw the shape and then kept smiling all the way through. I am giddy with the spinning! Just a WONDERFUL response to the prompt!
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Ooh, thank you muchly, Lill! I wasn’t so sure about it but it wouldn’t let me do anything more with it, one of those stubborn poems that fights back! I’m so glad it works.
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I absolutely love this! 😍 The comparisons and the shape of the poem…This also brought back fun childhood memories!
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Thank you, Jenna. 😉
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Kim your poem brings back joyful moments from childhood, the spinning and falling on the grass especially.
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That makes me happy, Lisa!
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🙂
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This is beautiful Kim! You’ve captured the wonder and joy of the child, and the love of the adult–both spinning.
When my younger daughter was a toddler, she would spin around and say, “I’m bizzy!” That always made me laugh.
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Thanks so much, Merril! ‘Bizzy’ is a great neologism. 😉
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This is lovely! From the spinning child up to the sky then the earthbound first kiss that transports up to those sequin stars.
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Thank you, Jane.
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🙂
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I love the formatting and the spinning images specially the ending:
sequinned constellations tacked
across the sky – spinning us
into outer space
again
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Thank you, Grace.
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I love this all from the beginning to end. It’s immersive and beautiful, and wild in imagery. I love the rhythm and rhyme scheme as well. Amazing, amazing work!
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Thanks so much, Lucy!
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This is splendid and fun and so very personal. Youth, ah yes–so easy to be rebellious when tanned skin and raging hormones make the future look so deceptively bright
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Cheers Glenn!
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Great images for the best kind of dizziness. (K)
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Thanks Kerfe!
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A very beautiful piece of nostalgia and love! Very sweet!
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🙂
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I love what you did with the form on this one!
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Thank you, Dwight!
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Look at what you just did there! This is genius and brilliant. The shape and the words perfectly spinning together!
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Thank you so much!
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Always a pleasure!
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kaykuala
That’s a lot of revolutions all going on at the same time. Love the visual structure, Kim. It gives a picture of movements and mobility reminiscent of a revolution.
Hank
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Cheers Hank!
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This is so full of joy and movement, Kim. I saw spinning tops. i guess the whole world is a massive spinning top, whirling through space.
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Thank you, Sarah. It started with a memory of spinning until we were dizzy on the bit of grass in front of our block of maisonettes when we were kids.
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Wow! this is so amazing. Each line is better than the next and the composition puts a nice *spin* to it. I love this!
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*each line is better than the one before (not next haha), my mind was thinking something and my hands typed something else..
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😊
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Thank you, Jay!
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Absolutely brilliant! You captured that giddy feeling of love with dizzying childhood memories of spinning out like a top. I loved the format too. ☺️
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Thank you, Christine!😊
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How lovely this is Kim, and it captures the delightful innocence of youth.
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Thank you, Linda.
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This just made me smile!
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🙂
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Oi. I read this much earlier, but couldn’t respond until just now. I had to wait for my head to stop spinning!
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🙂
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