Well, thank you very much, Margaret Simon! A bracing challenge for the Sunday Swaggers this month: we swag on over to Jericho Brown's THE TRADITION to learn more about the duplex form, one which I tackled already not too long ago to satisfy a different challenge.But it would be a cheater-pants move to just reuse that poem, so in honor of the fact that in this new world order I swim laps on a cloudy October afternoon (every other year of my life pooling came to a hard stop on Labor Day Monday), I offer this fresh and drafty new duplex, "a ghazal that is also a sonnet that is also a blues poem..."
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Can't wait to see what Margaret and the other Swaggers have come up with--you can too by clicking below.
-Catherine at Reading to the Core
-Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
-Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone
-Linda at A Word Edgewise
-Linda at A Word Edgewise
Our hostess with the mostess today is Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference (and I mean that literally--I believe that Tabatha posts more consistently than any of us steady and prolific posters). May your Friday be steady and prolific as well.
Wow, Heidi! I love that swimming is such a part of your life. Your brain is so creative during swim. I used to enjoy it so much! I loved the ideas that came and went as I was counting laps.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great "in" for a duplex...the upside down bowl image is perfect. I love how couplet five sort of breaks the pattern with a shorter line. It made me pause and think, much like pausing during a swim to take a breath. Yes, we are thinking about how bad things are.
Way to rise to a challenge, Heidi! I agree with Linda--what a lot of inspiration you're getting from swimming these days! As always your word choice delights and your use of internal rhyme is so effective. There's a fabulous rhythm to this poem and it's wonderful to read aloud. Well done!
ReplyDeleteYou took on this challenge in a very "Heidi-esque" way with your turn of phrases. This feels good on the tongue as a blues poem should, rolling around in that pool. We are "swimming through the thick of it" and I have my trusty Swaggers to do it with me. Thanks for taking the plunge! I hope it was a satisfying swim.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to avoid getting handfuls of how bad it is...hard to be unsinkable in downside sky. I like "cheater-pants move" a lot. It's like a wee poem in itself.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderuful! A duplex seems like a difficult form, and yours is fantastic. We're still in swimming weather here in Florida. I am torn between wanting the cooler weather and eeking out a few more days at the pool.
ReplyDeleteI like that you connected your swimming with the way we are living our lives these months, Heidi, that "upside bowl of blues" & that next to the end verse, "to hang on when. . ." Well done & all so true.
ReplyDeleteI love your duplex, Heidi. You've captured so much of what so many of us are feeling right now. "Hanging tough is swimming through the thick of it" is our only option. I'm so grateful to have friends like you to keep me afloat right now!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you just keep swimming. It IS hard to hang on to what's good.
ReplyDeleteWow. I am in awe. This is now my favorite swimming poem of all time.
ReplyDeleteThanks Heidi for sharing your thoughts on life in an upside bowl of blues. I think many people are feeling heavy clouds. You always come up with poems of many layers.
ReplyDeleteThat first line! Swoon. Beautiful. I will have to try it. It's the perfect poem for today.
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