Pseudopsychosis.

Faces.

Death’s weir from the mammoth faces we know,

spuming dead ghosts into the sea.

My mistress winter feasts her bones, to starve on the tongues of a storm;

lips of Janus will part like Eve to the python’s words; o’ then in innocence who else if then would have a rib torn to kill

Loneliness, the rogue
Beet-blood, greeting you
in a face of all faces

enter, not dressed in the thunder of the storm—where the creel slips away from the fool.

Perhaps I only see the drunkening of a moment rather than its reason.

He should have carried it with two hands.

humility is so sweet.

Tempest in its lines of accusation, it nurses a sky to never become. We come to appreciate the anointed poisons, the thunder-strokes of the breast.

Perhaps I see an ocean waning in madness,

seeking serenade. He should have carried it with two hands.

© 2020 lucysworks.com All Rights Reserved.

Written for the dVerse prompt: This week, I would like you to write about a time when you last watched stars, a storm, the sea, an animal, or something else in nature that left you with a sense of wonder or awe. Aim to write no more than three tight paragraphs, followed by a traditional haiku that includes reference to a season.

Lucy

“Poetess of darkness”–dVerse community; cat hoarder, guitarist, keyboardist, psych major.

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34 responses to “Faces.”

    • I’d be more than happy to explain. I cannot remember a specific time I’ve seen a storm that left me in pure awe, but I do remember individual memories of storms and I admire their beauty and sense of recklessness that it can provide to the sea with crashing waves. I was more or less going for, in the meaning of this poem, how we often do not think of the source of our strife in life. Rather, we think of the strife itself and less of the concepts that possibly made it. All based on a conversation with a couple of friends the other night, actually. 🙂

      And yes, indeed. That is so true. Thank you so much for reading my piece.

      Liked by 2 people

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  4. Yours is the most spirited and poetic haibun I have ever read. Kudos for placing the haiku in the middle, At my most audacious, I placed haiku before, in the middle, and at the end. These forms are not our tethers, they are our inspirations, right? I liked “my mistress winter feasts her bones, to starve on the tongues of a storm” and “enter, not dressed in the thunder of the storm–where the creel slips away from the fool.”

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  7. My goodness this is bursting with poetic brilliance, Lucy! I love; “humility is so sweet. Tempest in its lines of accusation, it nurses a sky to never become.”

    Liked by 1 person

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  10. So good Lucy! Lonliness in the eyes of every face as we all drop like flies…. and he should have handled humility with both hands and handed off the torch peacefully. The ocean is waning in its craziness… we hope.

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  14. I love the way your haiku balances the two parts of the prose, Lucy, and seems to me to separate sky and gods from ocean – loneliness is indeed a rogue ‘in a face of all faces’ – I often feel lonely in a crowd of faces. I too have seen those ‘mammoth faces’ in the clouds before a storm, and my favourite line in this poem is ‘My mistress winter feasts her bones, to starve on the tongues of a storm’. I also love ‘Perhaps I only see the drunkening of a moment rather than its reason’.

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  16. The one thing I love about your poems, Lucy, is that they can be read from front to back, back to front, or of each individual line. It’s like each of the lines tell a story of their own! 🙂

    Yet, even as you read it, altogether, it tells an epic.

    I adore how this specific one speaks of “faces”, as if of change, whether abrupt or smooth, like life taking its toll upon a mother to begin as she ends the pain. No one knows why life begins; it just does. “Carrying it with two hands”…? For this, I see the vulnerability of a man, unable to defend himself with one free hand, for he holds his own rib with both. That is Adam, right?

    It’s interesting how the mammoths to the whales represent evolution and philosophy, both of natural and supernatural, colliding with the Biblical references.

    Then, the storms. Then, the humility. Bitterness and sweetness.

    I love the abstraction, the subtlety in metaphors and imagery, in your work. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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    • Thank you so very much. I love this analysis. Surprisingly, while I brought up Eve, I did not think of Adam as the one “carrying it with two hands.” I wanted to describe the exact nature of selfishness and humility, the consideration of our actions and the sources of karma. A lot of this was inspired by a philosophical, fun conversation with friends.

      Thank you again for the kindness and the analysis. It is much appreciated, my good friend.

      Liked by 1 person

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