Well, I’m a day late and a dollar short on this one. And my excuse is…
the timeless summer loop I’m in that I reference in this poem I couldn’t find the time to write.
Hello, peaceful, meta, Gordian knot.

Anyway. Our challenge was to write a pantoum, using these particular prompts from Pádraig Ó Tuama.

This is a verrrrry rough draft, but I’m happy to have felt it and noticed it and written it, such as it is right now.

Cottage Pantoum
By Liz Garton Scanlon

The cottage – boney, beautiful and old
listens to the trees creak (and the crows),
secrets spill upon the sleeping porch like gold.
The moon at half-mast holds quite still and glows,

listens to the trees creak (and the crows)
while carp the size of platters flaunt the night.
The moon at half-mast holds quite still and glows –
real time dissolves to nothing in this light

while carp the size of platters flaunt the night.
My skin awakes to slips of sheets and sand,
real time dissolves to nothing in this light,
another day arriving whole, unplanned.

My skin awakes to slips of sheets and sand,
secrets spill upon the sleeping porch like gold.
Another day arriving whole, unplanned,
in this cottage – boney, beautiful and old.

To read the others, go here:
Tanita
Mary Lee
Laura
Tricia

And if you’d like to write alongside us next month, we’ll be writing haiku sonnets! Try one!