Thank you, Bjorn, for your fearless leadership of dVerse and your unflagging encouragement to those of us who gather at the dVerse pub from this most appreciative admirer of your poetry. Here’s to you and the ancient librarian! Cheers!
I took a tree for a chapel
I took a bird for a priest
I ate a heart out of ginger root
Its enflamed sighs my prayers
Out of my back a tree grew one day
Sparrows fluttered in my blind branches
Until feather-gorged down a smooth-skinned maw
One soundlessly disappeared
Out of my ginger-rooted chest
A giant water bug starving crawled
To pierce into liquefaction
A spring peeper, sun-warmed frog.
I dreamt there was no heaven
I dreamt there was no rest
No sunsets that spoke of design
No kindness that spoke the divine
I fancied stardust my homeland
And entropy was my life
In the scheme of all that’s unholy
This is what I wrote
“Everything is fine”
Lillian at dVerse asks us to "write a poem that includes one line and one line only, from the lyrics of ABBA’s Dancing Queen. The line must be word for word." I chose to use the line, "Everything is fine." Click on Mr. Linky and join us! photo ©dorahak
Dreams from a Pilgrimage 
Wow. This is a powerful write.
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We find peace when we find it at our core.
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I love the beginning… finding your church with the trees, I sometimes feel that that is how it should be, our churches are just imitations of reality.
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I’ve oftentimes felt the same way, although walking into a Gothic cathedral or a Cistercian monastery moves me with our own efforts with stone and chisel to imitate the great trees of the forest pointing skyward.
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Beautiful first lines, but of course the poem goes much further than that, and digs in deep. Powerful, yes, but also strong messages to go with the imagery. A really educative read about where one can go with poetry. Really appreciated.
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Thank you, Ain.
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Dora,
Very beautiful. Full of Truth. Thanks. I needed that.
Bob
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And I needed to hear that. Thank you, Bob.
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*tosses keyboard out the window* This is what I wish I had written. You had me at the opening stanza. To me, nature and spirituality are always intertwined. Here, you’ve gone a step further, either into the metaphorical or the hallucinatory, depending on the reader. That ending falls heavy as an anvil.
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Glad to hear it worked. Always sounds less to one’s own ears. “Heavy as an anvil”: yes. You spoil your fans, Shay: an astute reader and lavish with praise. Thank you. 🙂🙏
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This one drew a deep sigh out of me .. incredibly beautiful in its imagery and depth. I especially love; “I ate a heart out of ginger root/Its enflamed sighs my prayers.”💝💝
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Hope in the face of adversity. A good message. Can you explain the relevance of ginger, please? I know it’s use against nausea.
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Ginger root: sometimes freshly cut ginger tea helps ease my pain, cutting down on the inflammation (“enflamed sighs”). It’s an old remedy. Of course it’s a natural ingredient in all kinds of curries. I’m severely limited in the foods I can eat these days. sigh!
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I thought it must be something like that. I sympathise 😦
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Nice lines to show what one is missing:
“No sunsets that spoke of design
No kindness that spoke the divine”
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“I dreamt there was no heaven I dreamt there was no rest” this will anger all of Lennon’s Imagine devotees/disciples.
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Your penmanship is exquisite Dora. You are a true wordsmith for you weave your words so beautifully.
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Wonderful and intense Dora. Your images go from light to dark. The creepy beetle was an interesting image that I could not figure out. Your ending reminds me of our response when people ask us how we are doing!
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LOL, you really don’t want to know, but there are giant water bugs that suck dry the innards of a live frog, and as you watch you can see it deflate like an empty sack of skin. A shocking cruelty.
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Wow! that is one I never heard of before! What an intense image!
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Your imagery is heavenly, both powerful and peaceful. “Everything is fine,” is both observation and prayer! 💓
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A fascinating poem, Dora! It sounds as though nothing is fine when faith fails us.
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beautiful
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A beauty for sure! I liked the third line “I ate a heart out of ginger root”. So much truth in the poem that I completely agree with… 🙂
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“I dreamt there was no heaven
I dreamt there was no rest
No sunsets that spoke of design
No kindness that spoke the divine”
Wow…a nightmare indeed. Causes me to give thanks…where would I be if I could not find rest in the Lord!?!
Thank you, my Sister!✝️🛐🙏❤
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exquisite wordsmithing Dora, your imagery, the entwining of nature and spirituality … this is how it should be! Such an enlightened view 🙂
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I think of Ecclesiastes here: Wow a world without God without hope…
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. . . and without conscience … nature has no moral compass
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True…very true
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Wow so true
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