Mabh Savage
Words and the world passing by; how it sings to me; how I clamour back.
Close Circuit Life
White noise
Light
Screaming
Electric whine
AC/DC buzz
Hum, hymn to
Sweat and blood
And tears
Not fairs
Grey hairs
And loop
And glitch
Switch
White noise
Broken toys
Nameless joys
Extended scenes
And screams
And dreams
Grey hairs
From scares
And truth
Or dares
And glitch
Switch
White noise
Heart ache noise
Heart break boys
Or girls
Or more
The score
Not settled
Heart sore
Forever more
And glitch
Switch
White noise
Big choice
New toys
Work and
Play and
AC/DC buzz
Hum, hymn to
Autonomy
Terror
They are
Now you
Clutch and reach
Hold tight
Glitch.
Image and words copyright 2018 Mabh Savage
If he ruled the world…
If he ruled the world
Celebrity vloggers would
Always tweet back
Staying up all night
Would be good for you
Books could be
Read in the dark
Screen time would just be
Time
There would be
No shouting
No fussing
No stressing
No rushing
But also
No homework
No school work
No dressing or
Teeth brushing
Smelly but happy
He would rule
From his throne
(Not at school)
Must a Man
Ten parts water
One part gin
Three parts angel
One part sin
5 and a half quarts
Ruby red
100,000 hairs
One brain, one head
One dash of anxiety
Drawn at night
One dream
One fright
One ‘it’s alright’
Two arms to hold
Hold on;
To this
A mouth to laugh
To scream
To kiss
One part fever
Three parts cold
Six parts trembling
Two parts old
Two hands, two feet
Two million steps
How many miles?
Ask Dylan instead.
Just One Taste
That little, sweet sound
As she latches on;
Pure satisfaction
Simple contentment
Though I give her
But one taste
A single flavour
Of sustenance
She is so grateful
And happy
And thus
Sustains me.
Broken Treaty
Shadows in the Dark
Look at that patch there
Just a little thicker
A touch more velvety
Swirling slightly
In the backdraft from the
Swinging bedroom door.
Switch on the light
And it retreats,
Like the rest of the darkness
Like any of us
Eyes abused by sudden
Sharp shock
Of luminescence
We hide our heads
Where they live.
The light is off again
The glass of water filled
The book retrieved
The phone on charge
The baby fed
The window closed
The tap tightened
The covers pulled up
Close round ears.
The thicker patches of darkness
Swirl and stream
Across the silent room
Mesmerising motion
An ocean of ink
That will never tell a story;
A shadow play.
The Wedding
I married
The old stone wall
Hidden behind
The rhododendrons
I found it
When the snow
Angel coloured lead
Bowed the branches
White flakes
For my veil
We borrowed
The blue
Sky, old
And new
And stood in front
Of ourselves
No witnesses.
The Battle
And so begins NaPoWriMo 2018! Good luck to all who are participating.
Constant lies
Puppy dog eyes
Butter would melt
And why why whys
Driving me insane
This is my brain
Pouring out my ears
And down the drain.
Magpies
Photo by me, Magpie through a rainy window, copyright 2017.
One for Sorrow
Two for Joy
Three for a Girl
Four for a Boy
Five for Silver
Six for Gold
Seven for a Secret
Ne’er to be told.
Ok, most of us will know some version of that rhyme, a strange form of avian divination that relies upon there never being eight magpies or more. But have you also heard:
Once a Wish
Twice a Kiss
Thrice a Letter
Four, something better…
I was taught this as a little girl, but this was also interchangeable as a sneezing rhyme.
One website, nurseryrhymes.org, gives us a further verse to the original rhyme:
Eight for a Wish
Nine for a Kiss
Ten for a Bird
You must not miss.
But this seems to me to simply be a rough amalgamation of the two rhymes, with a filler line thrown in at the end to round it off neatly.
Terry Pratchett also gave this alternative version, in Carpe Jugulum:
One for Sorrow
Two for Mirth
Three for a Funeral
Four for a Birth
Five for Heaven
Six for Hell
Seven’s the De’il
His ane Sel.
Another well known magpie superstition is to salute the birds if you should happen to see them. Or to say ‘Hello’ and touch your forelock.
All these superstitions (except the sneeze rhyme) revolve around the idea that to see a lone magpie is bad luck, and by acknowledging the bird you are breaking the curse; dispelling the bad vibes, so to speak.
Countrylife.co.uk tells us that to see a crow immediately after a magpie cancels any bad luck, which just shows how much we revere corvids in the British Isles, and how much power we associate with them.
Pica pica lonesome is a portent of doom, but a group of magpies is a mischief. What magpie superstitions do you know, and what’s local to your area?
World Poetry Day 2018
For World Poetry Day today, I was obsessed with petrichor, the smell after the rain. Here are some of the poetic doodles I did today…
Rain hits soil hits nose
Knowing how it works doesn’t
Make it not magic.
Microbes multiply
Each rain drop
A mortar spreading them
Far and wide
Until they arrive
At the olfactory outpost
As the smell of
Spring
And the earth resting
After the storm.
And finally, a topical one I posted with the tag ‘crap haiku’:
Bee acupuncture
Is not the greatest idea
Just stop it now, please.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my poetic doodling! There was one more poem I wrote today, but it was a gift for my newest patron on Patreon. Please consider becoming a patron; every penny helps me create more poetry and writing, and all patrons receive exclusive rewards and unique gifts.
Until next time…
Image credit: Cymbidium by Brocken Inaglory, copyright 2011 via Wikipedia Commons.
