The Sound of Goodbye

Hoverflies hum a monotone refrain
in the aspen grove that hisses in the wind.
Buzzards tumble, roll and spin again,
their whirring wing beats chagrined.
The tap-tap-tap of tree creepers
and ticks in the tree trunks’ gnarly
bark give a dumped lover the jitters,
as goodbye hiccups and rolls into infinity
like a plaintive summons from divinity.

Kim M. Russell, 30th May 2024

Image: Unsplash+ in collaboration with Zetong Li

It’s Thursday, Meeting the Bar with Björn at the dVerse Poets Pub, and we are returning to onomatopoeia, a word formed ‘from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle)’.

Björn reminds us that the dictionary is filled with words created from how we mimic a sound, and there are actually specific word lists for these, sometimes including words that are not even in the formal dictionaries (yet) as they may be part of slang, or are borrowed from other languages. He says that cartoons often use strong visual and onomatopoeic pictures and invent their own words, and that tying together the sound of the poem as it is being read strengthens its meaning, or maybe adds another layer of irony that is only understood if it is read aloud. He asks us to consider Robert Frost’s poem ‘Out, Out — ‘.

Today we are using onomatopoeia in our poems, to strengthen the imagery through sound.    

44 thoughts on “The Sound of Goodbye”

  2. “Buzzards tumble, roll and spin again, their whirring wing beats chagrined,” .. this is so powerful! Gorgeous work done, Kim! 😍😍

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  8. Though it is a sad goodbye, the back drop of the nature sounds are wonderful. Love

    this part: The tap-tap-tap of tree creepers
    and ticks in the tree trunks’ gnarly
    bark give a dumped lover the jitters,

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. I love the tap tap of treecreepers and natures soundtrack as a backdrop to a lover’s jitters and hiccups of goodbye. Maybe the hope is tears will be lost in the wilderness and that healing will begin.

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  14. Wow, what a combination! I hear a subtitle: Mindfulness During the Breakup. You have really captured how time sort of stands still when you get really bad news and everything becomes so loud that you can hardly harness your thoughts.

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