For this last challenge of 2015, I thought we could do a theme poem rather than one in a particular form. Up to you to choose how you do it, but the challenge is to write a poem using a familiar saying. The one I chose was ‘as the crow flies’.
Here are some examples:
Keep the wolf from the door
One swallow does not a summer make
Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings
Straight from the horse’s mouth
A cat has nine lives
A cat can look at a king
Curiosity killed the cat
Burning the midnight oil
Cross that bridge when we come to it
Let sleeping dogs lie
Kill two birds with one stone
Once in a blue moon
Method in my madness
Steal someone’s thunder
Every cloud has a silver lining.
And this is my crow flies poem.
Photo ©Plismo
As the crow flies,
Light dies,
Ragged wingbeats slow,
Steady as the ocean’s flow.
Wingbeats, oarstrokes, funeral barque,
Carrying some soul into the dark.
As the crow flies,
Light dies,
Funeral barque,
Rows into the dark.
Have fun writing, keep sane over the New Year festivities, and see you in 2016.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
Here is a link to my short poem based on a saying:
http://writinginnorthnorfolk.com/2015/12/30/broken-clock/
Interesting idea! Your poem is wonderful–so simple, but so rich in imagery and symbols.
Thank you! Crows and ravens are loaded with symbolism 🙂
I think crows are cool birds. 🙂
I prefer Jackdaws. They are so elegant.
I actually had to look that up. They’re in the crow family, but I don’t think we have them here in the US.
Thank you Jane–enjoyed your poem–may sanity stay with you as well over the next stretch 🙂
Thanks Janice 🙂 We’re going at this like a military operation.
Yes the show keeps rolling no matter what…:)
Hi Jane! I never got to do a butterfly cinquain from your challeng #6, so I decided to combine it with this week’s challenge. The saying I chose is, “Just Breathe”. Happy New Year ~kat
https://kmmyrman.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/just-breathe-2/
Good idea, and very apposite choice of saying for this fraught time of year!
I’ll be working on this one. Happy New Year!
Glad to hear it 🙂 Happy New Year to you too.
Wonderful challenge. Working on it, hoping to get it down before the new year, as a way to look at the ending of one and beginning of another. Looking into the origins of idioms is fascinating in itself.
Love your offering for this challenge. The tone and flow of the words melding with the notions involved, dark yet underneath there is a lightness, as in the acceptance of the natural course of things.
Thank you! I think you’ve put your finger on it. Nothing in the natural cycle is totally dark. Once we accept that certain things must be, it’s up to us to make sure that their coming to be has something positive about it.
I’m sure you’ll come up with something interesting. Your last poem was brilliant.
https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/all-we-are-saying/
This entry of mine may be crap but that’s just what it’s meant to be. I have compiled a few literal English translations of random Dutch sayings, purposely avoiding to make any sense, nevertheless hoping that somehow it may sound acceptable for the challenge.
Oh, and Happy New year one and all!
It makes perfect sense, Peter. Well, some of it… Have a wonderful New Year!
Here is my New Year’s Eve offering – “Burn the Candle at Both Ends” – with a pro-labor twist and salute to Woody Guthrie.
http://elusivetrope.com/2015/12/31/laboring/
All greatly approved of round this way 🙂
🙂
This is a nice way to close out the year. (And a fine example.)
Here’s mine, titled “The Time of Our Lives”:
Hours spent filling a need
erasing distance
with face time
caught in a net
Embracing at the station
prelude to jazz in the park
and a rendezvous on the lake
Chicago, our special place
Nine hundred miles
driven to you, then back
a December weekend
far too short
A winter retreat
with bed and breakfast
served with a flair amongst
Finger Lakes and wine
Mile after mile
counting the miles
erasing the miles
the final nine hundred miles
Finding a home
making a home
no longer alone
our home together
Each but a moment
in the time of our lives
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2015/12/31/the-time-of-our-lives/
I was rather thinking of you with that suggestion…
https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/mitchell-thread-7/
Happy New Year everyone! I know to some, idioms are annoying but I really love them. They feel dependable! I can’t remember if there is a time limit but here is my offering.
https://writersdream9.wordpress.com/2016/01/02/my-timefree-verse/
No time limit, Carol. Thanks for participating 🙂
My pleasure!
I liked the idea of weaving a saying into a poem but my imagination stayed close to the ground– I had one small idea though, which I went with–based on life with our two little dogs. I’ll be posting it January 3 morning. Thanks for the challenge!
Thanks Janice!
Does this work?
Mum’s cup was half full
Never one to moan
Make do and mend
A mantra driven home
By constant repetition
In every little way
Forget about tomorrow
Live your life today
She smiled through frustration
And turned her back on pain
Every time she fell far short
She’d stand and start again.
But of all the cliched lessons
She taught me without words
It was her lack of judging
Other people’s deeds
It’s all about the choices
That each of us can make
You may want to smile
But allow him his grimace
Her personal philosophy
Might be summarised thus:
Let each be as they want to be
And never make a fuss.
It works beautifully 🙂 Thanks for posting it.