Hunched against twilight,
unfurling brambles and briars
arch with witch’s spite,
wiry black liars
that prickle and grasp.
Night noises regale
with twisted tales
of thorns, the cost is just
a drop of berry red blood
to satisfy suckering roots.
All is not lost.
Kim M. Russell, 27th July 2020
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: Among the Brambles
Linda is our host this Monday with the Quadrille. a poem of 44 words exactly, excluding the title. She has chosen a word she loves, ‘bramble’ as it ‘brings to mind days of old, slower days, easy days, days without a virus raging through humanity’, and she is taken back to her childhood, picking blackberries on hot and humid summer days. We pick blackberries here in the UK too, and we have plenty around our garden.
Linda has not only shared a quote from ‘Alphabet of Thorn, by Patricia A. McKillip, but also poems by Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti.
The word to use in our Quadrilles today is ‘bramble’ or any form thereof; we can even create our own words from it.
This is incredibly captivating, Kim! 💝 I love the image of “Night noises regale with twisted tales of thorns.” 🙂 It sounds like a delicious new myth waiting to unravel.
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Thank you, Sanaa! 🙂
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You’re most welcome! 💝💝
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Kim, the alliteration and ‘juicy’ words in this piece are beautifully woven.
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Thank you so much, Jo-Anne!
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I love that single drop of berry blood and how that’s all it takes. This is mysterious and captivating.
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Thank you, Linda, We need some mystery in our lives these days, too much is revealed too easily and taken for granted.
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Yes, how true!
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Oh, that ending is a little disturbing. This is one of the darker fairy tales, I think. One drop is rarely enough for the bramble witch, in my experience.
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All the original fairy tales are dark, just the way I like them. I can’t be bothered with Disney’s sweetened pap. Give me Grimm and Andersen!
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I hadn’t thought of it that way, but brambles are evil. How could anything so vicious not be evil? The brambles here have had far more than a drop of my blood!
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You should have seen my husband’s arms when he’d finished clearing brambles from our garden, which is much bigger than we thought! Just the nettles to sort out and the painful bit will be over!
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You have to leave some nettles though. There’s something likes them, butterflies I think. They’re buggers though, and if you don’t keep them in check they take over.
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You’re dead right about nettles and butterflies, which have also taken a fancy to my potato plants, which is nice for me as they are outside my window!
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Our nettle patch is too far from the house to see what lives in it, but I’m sure something does!
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Aces
xo
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🙂
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Lovely, rife with internal and unique rhyming. As a picker of blackberries and a climber of thorn trees, I bear bramble scars proudly. They hurt like hell, but do fade away
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Thank you Glenn.
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Really good, Kim. The small price they ask indeed. Those things keep creeping and catching flesh wherever they can! “Briars arch with witches spite” is a great line.
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Thank you, Lisa.
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You’re welcome.
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This is quite the beauty! You sure had my attention while reading this piece. As said, it has a mysterious, evocative presence and it’s absolutely enthralling. It reminds me a bit of folklore and mythology with the witch details and the liar line. Amazing, amazing piece here. It’s lovely.
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Thank you, Lucy!
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In Oregon, where my daughter lives, blackberries grow wild along roadsides. I thought it the most remarkable thing when I first visited there. Her first home in Salem had a huge blackberry bramble which the birds loved. Your words reminded me.
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It’s always a thrill when my words have that effect. Thank you, Bev.
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What?!? Just a SINGLE DROP??
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That’s all it takes to be enchanted or bewitched.
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This is wonderful. I do love blackberries and never get enough of them.
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Thank you, Sherry!
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Short and dark, you chose your words well
Happy Monday Kim
Much🍇love
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Thank you, Gillena! And much love to you. 😉
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Hunched against twilight – love the opening and image.
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Thank you, Truedessa.
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An interesting bewitching tale you tell. The drop of blood to feed the runners tells me you know all about black berries! Well done.
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Cheers Dwight!
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Every fairy tale should have a bit of bramble and blood 😉
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Thanks Lynn! 😉
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The drop of blood leaves one to wonder how dangerous those brambles really are!
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🙂
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Great gothic write here. Agree with comment above – the original fairy tales are dark psychological mysteries where everything has a cost – and there’s more than a bit of this in this intriguing piece. Lovely read – thank you.
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Thanks Peter. I love Gothic poems and stories. .
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Ooo! A bit of the sinister that harbors sweetness – at a price. Nice.
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We called them prickers and they did always seem to be hiding something deep inside (but we picked the berries anyway) (k)
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Oooohh…. I like this. Well done, Kim. Gothic, indeed.
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Thank you so much, Bill!
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I love a dark juicy tale!
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🤓
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Magical! The stuff of fairy tales 🙂
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your imagery is breathtaking! the conclusion is profound
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Thanks so much! 🙂
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