This week’s challenge was going to be a new short poetry form, but Branwell died on Monday and my thoughts have been running along different lines since then. Monday was a day of apocalyptic storms, lashing rain, hail, black cloud, and fierce gusts of wind. Yesterday was more of the same. In between the storms, I went out for a walk, and saw Branwell’s rainbow. In the second photo you can just make out a second rainbow, fading, that wasn’t noticeable to the naked eye. David Bowie’s, I suppose. There’s also a rather strange effect in the photos, as if the rainbow is holding back the cloud, or giving a glimpse of bluer skies beyond.
The challenge this week is to write a short poem on the theme of bridges. You can use the photos as inspiration, or simply your own thoughts about mortality, crossings, and rebirth or not. I had already written a short poem on this theme on Monday, but have added another one, a sept, below.
Bridge
Takes you
Bright prism
To otherworld
Through the tears
Beyond pain
Peace.
Remember, you have a whole week to create something. Post your poem or the link in the comments. I’d love to read them.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
Beautyful jane, i shall try to write something.
Do! I’d like to read it 🙂
I try it jane!
Those rainbows are other worldly beautiful, Jane.
Again–I’m so sorry for your loss.
I’m going to try to get to this challenge, but I have to finish a work assignment first this week.
This week has not been a happy one, but life goes on. Hope you get round to the fun stuff soon 🙂
Amazing photos.
And so hard to lose someone you love.
The bridge form to the poem is a beautiful reflection. (K)
It struck me quite forcibly—the two bridges, one for the living and one for the dead. Loss is something we get over but never forget.
I’m not sure we always get over it…but the intensity does usually fade.
It wouldn’t be possible to live with that intensity of grief. The number of animals, not to mention people I have grieved over in my life—if it didn’t fade I’d never be able to get out of bed in the mornings.
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Sorry for your loss Jane…
Thank you, Chris. Just a cat. It seems stupid getting upset over a cat when there’s so much human suffering in the world, but hearts are like that. They don’t differentiate.
Bran was part of your family Jane!
Well, that’s the way we feel 🙂 We’ll still be seeing him and his great big paws, hearing him roaring for food, wondering is that Branwell on the roof fighting, for a long time to come.
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Know the feeling Jane…
I’m sorry for your loss. An animal can impact us just as hard when we lose them! God bless.
Love is love, wherever we give it, and loss is loss. We’ll get over it, but we do miss him.
A descending/ascending nonet for your challenge Jane. Holding you in my thoughts this week. I love Branwell’s rainbow! 🙂
https://kmmyrman.wordpress.com/2016/01/13/eternitys-bridge/
It’s a lovely poem, Kat, just the kind of thoughts I need 🙂
❤
Crossing
My eyes skim across the chuck,
sweep over the distant shore,
scan the scrunches of land
reaching above the lingering fog,
longing for the bright, bursting sky
We often rise above these moments,
find structures, systems, passageways
to help move us across this painful gulf,
and, all the while, embrace a lightness
that lifts us just beyond our sorrow.
returns us home,
returns us to the other side.
Thanks, Bill. That’s beautiful. The last two lines choked me up.
Are you happy with a link, Jane?
http://writinginnorthnorfolk.com/2016/01/14/charles-bridge-in-prague/
That’s fine, Kim 🙂
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Thank you, Jane!
Those rainbows must have felt like a gift. Will return another day with a poem. Take care.
They were so absolutely right, Janice. It’s a good thing there was nobody around to see the tears welling up.
A post from me while traveling:
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/base-senses/
I love this prompt and the title and central line came to me immediately. Writing the remainder of the poem was almost as grueling as the journey it describes. https://weavinggold.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/eternal-entiretys-longest-bridge/
It’s a journey to eternity so it’s not going to be like rolling off a log 🙂 Glad the prompt produced such a well-thought out poem!
😀
Thank you for this topic Jane, inspired by very sad circumstances, but as you would be the first to say, it is part of life–Part of life that I want to reflect on more. Anyway, I ended up with a brief snippet from my thoughts, which will link up in several hours.
I may have another one for Monday as well. (K)
https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/water-lilies-2/
With a picture? Promise?
Yes, I’ll post on Monday.
Hi, Jane! Hope all is well for you. Thanks for this prompt. Here’s my offering:
https://writersdream9.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/crossingscinquain/
Apart from the general melancholy, things are fine, thanks. Your poem helped to raise my spirits 🙂
I am glad to hear that. 🙂
Have a lovely weekend! 🙂
https://ladyleemanila.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/poetry-challenge-13-bridges/
Thanks—You too!
the second bridge
https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/martin-luther-king-day-2016/
I just make this one:
https://andrejayaprana.wordpress.com/2016/01/18/bridge/
Thank you, Andre 🙂
I finally wrote you a poem… its kind of a quatern thing with some extra rhyming thingies and a refrain, bit of a mash-up, really, you know me, never one to follow rules…
The Bridge
I know not why I brought you here
O’er a bridge of wishes and sighs
Wise in all youth’s folly, I fear
We’re broken, sundered by life’s lies.
Around the lake, widdershins, thrice
I know not why I brought you here
Tears fall for you in paradise
Sacrifice all to hold you near.
Hissed incantations disappear
Breathless, waiting, I’m frightened, shy
I know not why I brought you here
Dreary, the days beyond goodbye.
Spectral shade, dark entity sly
Formless ghost so cold, so severe
Mere memory will too soon fly.
I know not why I brought you here
Fantastic, Ali! So glad you set to and wrote this. It’s a beautiful quatern 🙂 Jane Dougherty
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Well, that’s probably not the F-word I’d use to describe it, lol! It certainly wasn’t the F-word I was using last night when I was trying to fit it all together lol! But it worked in the end. At least, it does for me. I was determined not to let you down again.
Getting rhymes to fit in can be tricky, but it doesn’t show 🙂
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You are too kind. 😊
Just honest 🙂
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😁