Monday, October 25, 2021

LAMENTING MY MUSE

 


My muse has gone silent, leaving me  alone with unformed phrases and words in random patterns.

We played joyfully together last spring creating abundant rhymes and verses.
Haiku happily graced the page.
Even a lonely limerick found a home.
Now bereft, I pluck pitifully at a tuneless lyre.

Perhaps it is the glory of the garden that has stolen her away.

What words compare to the luscious frills of peony petals, the palette of thrusting lupin spikes, the purple, yellow-bearded irises in proud majestic rows?


I am defeated by an ode to oxalis, with its tangy, trefoil leaves.
Delicate daisies rampant in the lawn, defy description and wild strawberries creep silently underfoot.

Will my muse be tempted by the fragrance of mixed herbs; mint, rosemary, basil, lemon balm?


Is she loitering on a lofty treetop distracted by the blue jays' chatter and the persistent pecking of the woodpecker?

Dear muse, don't judge me while you languish out of sight leaving me awash in adjectives, free to mangle metaphors and clutch at cliches.

I won't let your absence lead to despair. 

In time you will return to guide me.  

For now, I sit quietly on this rock beside my stone inuksuk that keeps watch at the water’s edge.

No need to hurry. I have company with the lush birth of greening growth around me; the miracle of a world reborn after winter's sleep.

And when you return, I'll be here, waiting.


First Prize Winner- Poetry in the Scugog Council for the Arts Ekphrastic Literary Contest 2021 

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