Naivety

Before knowledge
and creativity,
all that humankind had
was naivety:
footprints left on a beach,
handprints on cave walls,
the remains of simple
artisanal tools –
the beginnings of civilisation
in a flourishing green world,
unaware they would
be discovered
thousands of miles
from their origins,
thousands of years
after their last breaths,
along the North Sea’s
crumbling cliffs.

Kim M. Russell, 5th March 2024

Free image found on Pexels

It’s Tuesday, we’re already five days into March, and it’s Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub; with Dora as host, we’re writing about being young and green.

In her prompt, Dora starts with Shakespeare, moves on to Mark Twain and A.A. Milne, and on to Edna St. Vincent Millay via Dylan Thomas and A.E. Housman, all having written about being young and green, which is also the title of St. Vincent Millay’s poem. They are all excellent examples to inspire us to write poems on being young and green ‘from whatever persona or viewpoint we choose to adopt, including Milne’s, which takes on the knowing mindset of a six-year-old; Housman’s or Millay’s of looking back at our younger selves with irony at our rude awakening; or in Twain’s case, with amusement; or Thomas’s fond reminiscing at a seemingly timeless childhood paradise regained in memory’. I went back much further.

23 thoughts on “Naivety”

  3. It’s amazing to think of humankind at such a “green” age, mystical and child-like, and you bring it out so wonderfully, Kim. Loved your take on the prompt, surprising and somehow, so endearing on an age of “naivety.”

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  5. Naivety i think is common to one and all. Generations as well as individuals. It’s amazing that you took us so far back. Nice one.

    much♡love

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  7. Oh yes, and all over the world those far away from the North Sea. Caves a lot, they as on the outer walls do not require excavation. Nice, Naivety, like we carve the tree, to mark our appearance.

    ..

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