One Thousand Wings

Bring your art to life and other forces can lead it astray.

Parchment of one thousand hues,

Scarce touched yet intimate the love,

Endowed on yellows, reds, blues.

Fold us left, right, out, above.

Spread our fragile wings afar,

We in these frigid north skies.

 

A violent gust breathes life!

 

Dead wings do stretch, spread- airborne!

Parchment cranes to southern skies.

 

To gaze upon those paper cranes,

Borne south by untamed, loose winds,

What a stunned pose I held tight.

 

"What hath Man wrought?"

 

My cracked palms created those beautiful wings!

Creases so perfect!

Wind so rogue took them all,

In its dusty, dusky way.

 

A wild wind,

 

Which in the end,

 

Threw one thousand hues over treacherous oceans.

Sent them afar

In a jostling, tossing way.

 

A wild sea,

 

Away from me,

 

Slowly drowned one thousand water-faded hues

They so afar,

In their water-soaked, water-stroked way.

 

I wonder if this is defeat,

Is this how Burnham felt,

When he saw Columbia's city,

Her thousand paper pillars aflame?

 

Was he overtaken when he saw,

Those vines,

Swallow his still-burning embers,

And make what he had turned, burn?

 

Was he overtaken,

 

Just as I am?

 

I too, overtaken when I saw,

Those waves,

Take what I too, tried to give soul,

And drown my one thousand hues.

Author's Note

Please ignore any grammar/spelling issues.

Reviews

[charleybear]

this is really good. vivid imagery, it flows really well. i didnt want to stop reading once i'd started, the pace reminded me of the ocean waves flowing, pulling you out with the current encouraging you onwards.

[Kiara]

wow :]
this piece has
left me completely breathless
and like its been said probably many times
before me your writing contains great imagery
and while reading each and every line i could picture
everything in my mind perfectly, i love that about your style and writing
nicely done -arabella

[Christine]

Great poem. I loved the flow to it. Very vivid...I could almost picture the scene in my mind's eye. Great imagery. Looking forward to reading more of your work.

[John M. Hammond]

Wow. I believe you did what you set out to do. The way this poem travels is very, very visual. It's almost hard to describe. It's as if you took a beautiful painting and made it magically move within your words. Hope that makes sense. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

[Writer CW Kirkland]

I enjoyed reading this poem, and I liked that it seemed to flow freely. I appreciate your choice of words, and this piece evoked a sense of floating for me. Good job! Thank you for sharing your writing on the Cafe, and I look forward to reading more.

[Zelda]

Very nice Isaiah. Like all your works it contains vivid imagery that speaks to the reader. One can not help be touched by your words.