WUSTL Life-Lines (4/13/20)

Prompt

Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.

Star
     Stairway
     Memory
     Hour
     Light

***

a pathway of pebbles at night,
memory’s labyrinth of light
reaches a dark star
through an hour ajar
and a heretical power
ascends subterranean
staircases to the heart.

— James B. Moog

Many thanks to Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo who did me the great honor of surprising me with a Spanish translation which I prefer greatly to the original English:

Senda de guijarros nocturnos:
la luz laberíntica de la memoria
rebasa a la estrella oscura
de esta hora entreabierta.
Entonces una fuerza herética
asciende las escaleras sumergidas
que dan directo a nuestro corazón.

-James B. Moog

Finally, I couldn't help submitting another poem anonymously:

Ambiguous light falls upon
an unsuspecting hour.
Memory, that silver star, refuses
her curtain calls. I am
enchanted by a spiral stairway—
shadow play
before and beneath it—
and a single candle.

Poems submitted for April 13

Comments

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Gazing at the Creek

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Mind of Moog

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