Scarecrow's Lament

Listen. Here, do you hear 

as I hear, the snaring beat 

of quiet men being led 

to slaughter. The dying age

turning pages, leaf by 

bloody leaf 

                  for what 

would never pass as spring again. 

Look. See there, how autumn 

blighted fields were left to fallow  

crops of a mourning’s 

mouldering grief 

                          for what 

the summer’s arid rage wrought. 

Sift the soil, fingers feel 

the spoiled acres of dead orchards 

like mine do 

                    for what 

winter’s pantries never stored. 

Breathe deep the rot 

of empires 

                 for what 

words cannot translate. 

The mute rhymes of poets … 

                                                for what

for whats.   

Ken e Bujold

Reviews

[light and ashes]

I really love the last two lines..
but I think the overall meaning of this poem is lost on me.

[Ken e Bujold]

scarecrow is metaphor for death. Grim reaper watching over the senseless battlefields, waiting to harvest his next crop. Simple as that LA

[Tom]

That scarecrow still standing as he has been from years and generations before, a wise old sentinnel who bears witness and testament to trials and tribulations of mankind who now and many before have worked the land, their failures, successes and sadly those that answered their country's call and never returned to home soil...

Inspiring!!

[1809 Black Plague Decem..]

Oh wow, I like that. Poetry 's creativeness for me is so envovlving,
a minute glance is a tinker taste of water :S ---Maynard

[Ken Simm.]

I can hear the old legends and beliefs in this. Strange, spooky and almost ritual. A wonderfully expressive and atmospheric poem.

[Ken e Bujold]

yes written as follow up to Elegy to Brooding Soldier. Follows the same themes, but written as a more across-the-pochs narration. Style is a bit of the imagists and a bit of a mash of Chinese poets of 15th century

[Soren]

Ken I enjoy the format of this poem. It reads as a soliloquy with a narrator posing questions to the reader. Questions that are thought provoking as well as emotions evoking. I enjoyed this very much.

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks for review and thoughtful analysis. scarecrow is metaphor for death (in this particular case over a battlefield)

[John]

Grim, remorseless, a kind of repost to Keats' quietly hopeful To Autumn, which the sarcastic speaker derides with the oxymoron of winter's pantries, a store room of unregrnerative nature presumably. The preposition and interrogative, for what, doing double work and dislodged from the body of the poem cries out for some purpose as nature's bulldozer rolls on relentlessly. The scarecrow is a crucified Christ figure, despairing yet eloquent, the artist who generates 'for what's' till he in turn turns mute, and only his art remains.

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you john. spot on with your review. i hadn't thought of keats, was reflecting more on Sassoon and Owens but JK is there too

[Relic]

I wrote one about scarecrows many moons ago and deleted it. Yours is so much better. :)

[Ken e Bujold]

thank you R. Scarecrow in my mind stands in for witness to the folly of war.

[Relic]

Wow! Gives it a whole new meaning. Great poem.

[Kelly Scheppers]

There you go again, impressing the hell out of me! My "wows" even fall short to be of any significance. I'll forever be the one sitting in the balcony, way up in the back, shouting "bravo". Listen for me, ok?

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks ever so much for the humbling praise Kelly.

[W. Barrett Munn]

The structure here is like a crib, with each indent rocking back and forth between phrases. A captivating and clever use of language.

I feel like Wayne and Garth in the presence of Madonna: We are not worthy!

[Ken e Bujold]

hesitant to tell you this: not to make you envious, but this was one of those poems that fall from the heavens. If you have your ears open and pen at hand beauty can result. I wrote this in less than an hour this morning, from first thought to last period. The idea behind the indented for what was simply to pose the never-ending question that carries one sense to another. weave of seasons in time. The other device of each verse be a diminishing number of lines was also an intentional device to highlight 2 thoughts. 1) passage of time to a concluding end 2) mind's regression away from the natural senses to the conceit of needing an intellectual rationale. like ripples in the pond, you could say

[W. Barrett Munn]

I read once a thousand or so years ago something about poetry I never really believed, but the author said that lines of poetry should be able to be read down to up as well as up to down - obviously, that author had to be talking only about paratactic lines, not hypotactic. Regardlesss, this poem of your does that with the "cradles", to wit: The dying ages turning pages, leaf by bloody leaf, for what?
OR
For what the summer's arid rage wrought?

It's damned effective, whatever it was.

W.

[Ken e Bujold]

yes. as I said this came quickly, one-morning session, which is such a rarity for me. I can count the number of poems written as such in my life on the digits of my hands and feet. Some might think 20 is a lot, but when you have written for as long, and as many as I have in 40+ yrs, let me assure you it is rare. And precious.
As to your comment of up/down YES. Once I had finished and read it to myself a few times, I realized that this gem could if read end to start still stand as a flowing work. Not to toot my own horn, but this is one I am damned happy and proud of.

ken