Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Tuesday Poem: Frozen

There were Turkish Delights,
I remember that much 
smothered in icing

Once tasted
Almost all else is forgot

There was Hide and Seek
I remember counting
doling out time in delicious seconds

Each heart beat a sliver of
icy anticipation

and lakes to skate across
I remember flying,
and falling

the icy shell easily pierced
unlike a heart frozen through
and through

Tears that never fell
Rim glassy eyes

Do you remember?
I think there was a time
called Green.
And everything was Spring

A.J. Ponder

Hey people, only a little late, and I dare say might come back with a couple of tweeks in a week or so. But here it is - my little Frozen poem, borrowing a little nostalgia from a few places, but mostly Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen and C.S. Lewis' White Witch of Narnia.


Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the Tuesday Poem Hub
The poem I enjoyed most this week was Touch, by Michelle Elvy, up here on Helen McKinlay's blog (another of my favourite poets - it's too hard to pick just one)

cheers,
A.J.

P.S This poem got the seal of approval from a huge Elsa / Frozen fan - even though it mostly references earlier versions of the fairytale - so I'm very happy :)







6 comments:

  1. Oh I just love this. I like how the remembrances come in patchy moments -- fragmented but real. And the colour -- that is so very lovely there at the end. This is a slight but very large poem, Alicia. I admire it a great deal!

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  2. Replies
    1. And thanks too, Mary. Not sure how I missed you there. :)

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  3. Thank you so much Michelle - I really enjoyed writing this piece. :)

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  4. I've been thinking about this poem Alicia. It's more than nostalgic quite tragic. Is it for a piece of science fiction? The last verse really gets me
    'I think there was a time
    called Green.
    And everything was Spring'

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    Replies
    1. Thank you. It's mostly a nod to Hans Christian Andersen's 'Snow Queen.' In the fairy tale, a boy is trapped by the Snow Queen. To escape her winter, he has to solve her puzzle, but he can't because he can't see the good in anything. The hero (a little girl) cries, and that melts the sliver of mirror in the little boy's frozen heart.
      So yes, this is a tragedy. In this version there are no tears - so perversely every time I read it I want to cry. But on the other hand, I also love all the slivers of memory from a number of works inspired by the original. Like they're the boy's memories, and he's trying to piece them all together- but he can't quite put them in the right context, and he doesn't solve the puzzle.

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