Aw thankyou Ann - that means a lot. Love your response - "spreading through forests more prayers than places" - such a wonderful phrase. "More prayer than places" especially - marvellous! 🖤
I really like the Cottonwoods one. I came across the name of that tree in reading something years ago (I don't think they are common, if they exist at all in my country) and it just stuck with me as a kind of fascination
Yeah - that poem is special to me as well. This is the earlier version from when it was first published. When Bellamann republished it, he changed it slightly, and put it into a double-quatrain format, which isn't quite as successful as this version imo.
Cheers Jeffrey - yeah, I agree, Sand Hills is one of my all time favs, and the one which mainly inspired my response. Aw - it's a pleasure! Thanks for the encouragement, means a lot. 🖤
Wonderfully evocative poems, and yours is excellent too, Dick.
Aw thanks Portia, really appreciate it 🖤
Just a feast of inspiration in Henry Bellamann's poems. Love all the nature imagery--especially these lines:
The scurry of hyacinths
On hidden tides of earth,
And in your mystical lines:
who predicted the positions of stars—
the placement of letters
Thank you for the prompt.
“. . . tides draw ever and ever to these inconsistent coasts,
striving to mould some shape unknown to us, striving to
sound some music strange to us . . .”
We grow wilder and wilder
quiet mercy at the root,
spreading through forests more prayers than places,
twisting like tendrils and reaching for light.
.
Aw thankyou Ann - that means a lot. Love your response - "spreading through forests more prayers than places" - such a wonderful phrase. "More prayer than places" especially - marvellous! 🖤
I really like the Cottonwoods one. I came across the name of that tree in reading something years ago (I don't think they are common, if they exist at all in my country) and it just stuck with me as a kind of fascination
Yeah - that poem is special to me as well. This is the earlier version from when it was first published. When Bellamann republished it, he changed it slightly, and put it into a double-quatrain format, which isn't quite as successful as this version imo.
The poem that stands out for me is Sand Hills. A beauty. I love your response, too. Thank you for the work you do!
Cheers Jeffrey - yeah, I agree, Sand Hills is one of my all time favs, and the one which mainly inspired my response. Aw - it's a pleasure! Thanks for the encouragement, means a lot. 🖤
I'll be back shortly or not... I need some time for the prompt to soak me first.💛
Looking forward to it Fotini - take as long as you need 🖤