The Prompt: To write ‘In the Style Of’ Linda Hogan’s Innocence!
That (exquisite!) poem opens like this:
There is nothing more innocent
than…
I started similarly, and ran with it. My poem is far less lovely and much more annoyed than Hogan’s but, to be fair, hers was an awful lot to live up to for us mortals! Anyway, here goes.
BAMBOO
By Liz Garton Scanlon
After Linda Hogan’s Innocence
There is nothing more determined
than the subterranean shoots
of backyard bamboo, rhizomes advancing
like an electric grid, like an army,
disregarding fences and foundations.
There is no compromise, no working it out
or slowing it down, no way to say
what was determined now feels
aggressive to me, I feel
attacked
because as soon as I speak
or take to the soil with hoe or pick axe
another culm emerges, soft as grass
nearly the same green as a caterpillar
and exactly as tender.
I forget, just that quickly,
that culms become stalks, hollow and wooden.
In the face of that windswept tenderness,
I forget, forgive, relax –
a whole determined world beneath my feet.
Go read the others!!
Sara
Tanita
Tricia
Andi
And enjoy Poetry Friday at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme!
