Ceremony in Peaceful Protest

BBC.com (Source)
Fair Use
Protesters kneel to pray in Lafayette Square, Washington DC
31 May 2020

Come, let us kneel
in the burning streets.
Let us raise our hands to pray
to all that is above the smoke and flame
and all that is below the dust
and stepping stones of civilization.
Come, let us bid farewell
to the golden corpse of our idolatry
and bow our heads before
the rough rows of newly dead
that they may speak
in the poignant illustration
of each fresh grave.


I am writing in solidarity with all protest actions around the world against police brutality in the time of a world health crisis, where loss of life and livelihood has been both indiscriminate and extreme. Now is the time to stand together as citizens of the world against violence and bloodshed.


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Every Word Counts!

@skyloverpoetry

This is an open invitation to poets to use 3 or more words from my Skylover Wordlist in an original poem. If you would like me to read and comment, please paste the link to your page in the comments below.

Hammer

@skyloverpoetry
Copyright Kerry O'Connor

My heart is shield enough for your hammering ~
Defeat is only ever yours.


A Three of Swords Valentine.

In My Absence

Misplaced
@mc_monster
Used With Permission

This fallout-shelter mentality requires
a love of three things:
Bedrock, can-openers,
and the odour of dirt in confined spaces.
You should comprehend the virtue of trauma,
know a certain risqué joy
in the unashamed sacrifice
and thrive on toxicity, unafraid to measure
the half-life of your human heart’s slow decay.
And forego a happy ending.



Prompts, I have missed....

Guest Listed! with Helen Dehner, Monday, September 9

Out of Standard with Izy Gruye, Monday, September 16

.... In 55 Belated Words!

Perennial

Kerry O'Connor
@skyloverpoetry

Was I born for this? To blossom
for every wandering bee to take but never give
me a taste of the honey in return
 – my colours fade –
I have been halved and cored
all my bitter seeds spilled on infertile ground
but there is juice for hummingbirds
 – how they shine –
feeding on my perennial soul.


I am doubling up on Marian's marvellous prompts of this week: Juice! and Halved! in a Flash 55!

Walk Uprightly

We learn to walk uprightly
a delicate balance between mind
and the need to crawl into a muddy space to hide.

Our organs continually
spasm and twist with parasites
to whom we are little more than feeding grounds.

Uncentred and impious
we dig the meat from between
our teeth and dirt from the cracks in our soles.

But we seek absolution
nonetheless and train our eyes on
the nebulous heavens expecting an infallible reply.



Marian has given us Just One Word: Muddy, a glorious epithet for the toads.
Title Ref. Ps 84:11

Etiquette of Marriage

“Expect poison from the standing water.” 
William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell



Would we commit ourselves
to the vacuum of space,
knowing it means loss
of everything green and blue?
To be a stranger,
to marry the abysmal end
of all earthly things?
The well is poisoned
but we lay out the silver cutlery.
Are we willing to walk
naked through molten fields
to become as one?
The hands of the clock
are ticking in retrograde.
Could we cast off together
from the old world
to sanctify the new,
notwithstanding?


Day 7 ~ Marriage

Marian is our host in The Imaginary Garden with Just One Word: Etiquette.

Insensate

I’m hardly conscious, maybe half-alive,
but this palpable notion begins to prod
my peripheral vision. Synaesthesia. An odour
tickling the back of my throat. A low hum
bringing me to tears. My mind gropes for your hand.
Out of instinct, I guess. Easier to cling to familiar
visions, when all else is lost. Better still
to erase false sensation. Now you’re gone.


Marian asks us to play with Just One Word: Sensation

Singularity

This black hole eyelet
absorbs light ~
All gravitates towards
the event horizon ~
Vision narrows to particles
of black and white ~
This is the point of no return
nothing survives beyond singularity ~
To gasp for air
would be pointless now
but time for one last smile ~
Keep your finger on the trigger
ready to squeeze ~




For Camera FLASH! 55, which features a vintage photo of Jessie Tarbox Beals.

Simple Remedies (Flash 55)

Simple things became surreal, malevolent
Maureen Hynes

@skyloverpoetry
Instagram

Poison doesn’t kill
you overnight
when you sip it slowly –

you forget the sting
of a bee
on the back of your hand
and marvel, instead
at its lightness of being –

you shed tears
for eulogies of strangers
merely half a cup of grief –

forget to mop the saltwater
bonfire of your own
unswallowed fears –



This poem is in part inspired by the title of Milan Kundera's post-modern novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and in part by the photograph, entitled Still Life (1908) by Adolf de Meyer.
I have also used a selection of 5 words from the poem, The Horses, the Sorrow, the Umbilicus by Maureen Hynes and featured in Sherry's Wordy Thursday

I am posting selected poems on Instagram, so please follow me HERE.

For Friday Flash 55 Fans:

If anyone would like to share their 55-er this weekend, please leave a link in the comments below. Let's have a Kick-Ass Weekend.

For good measure, a reading.