anthology

feather

Tethered by a feather,

Clutched in a cocoon,

I tumble through the sky,

A whirlwind of fingers and hair and fabric and silence.

I am powerless to move,

Powerless to stop,

As the trees and the mountains

Overtake me on my race.

I am everywhere and nowhere at once.

I am in and of the universe.

I am flying with and through the stars,

Yet I am alone.

Still suspended, I am kidnapped by invisible hands,

Invisible forces hauling me along by the lone piece of plumage.

I can feel my grasp on my feather slipping,

So I let it go first.

I track its lofty path, soaring,

Beyond my reach,

As the ground reaches its cavernous maw

To consume my body, receive my fall.

Suddenly, the trees and the mountains aren't a distant line to cross,

They surround me like an apathetic guard of honour.

They surpass me as they stay rooted to the ground,

As the ground envelops me, embraces me under its rocky caress.

And there I stay,

My eternal slumber, my safe space.

Until a stray feather is yoked and drifts away,

A helpless, hopeless mannequin in tow.

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I believe that around the time of writing this poem, in my English HL class we were studying the poetry of Chinese writer Bei Dao. His distinctively opaque style of writing intrigued me, as he spins ways to create multiple meanings for his words. I also remember another poet's use of structure to help convey meaning. I tried to use these techniques to create meaning, but I'm not too sure how they worked out.

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vote, comment, leave suggestions and requests!!

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aek