
Burn them, they said in frenzy/they said about books
condemning ink and paper/ that ignite the soul
memories cannot be abolished or shredded/ nor let one sleep
Tyrants fear writers/ so praise the written word
history is not a set of books/ it is a way of life illuminating hearth and heart.
Written for Sadje’s wdys and for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Laura has invited us to play with opposites, cleaving them in fact.
Fun Fact: Cleave is a contranym, a word with 2 opposite meanings: i) split or sever. ii) become strongly involved with or emotionally attached to.
Thus we are taking an opposing word pair as theme prompt and writing two distinct poems, which then combine as one larger composition i.e. whilst they are distinct the 2 poems also should converse/relate with/to each other
A. Choose ONE of these paired opposites for your two poem’s theme whilst also including the chosen word somewhere in the body of each poem
- admit – deny;
- amuse – bore;
- beg – offer;
- condemn – praise;
- fix – break;
- mix – sort;
- scatter – collect;
B. And with your chosen antonym pair, write your poem(s) in ONE of these poetry forms:
- THE CONTRAPUNTAL – 2 poems that are distinct from one another but together can be read as one poem. They can be adjacent columns or fit alternately (italicised , boldened, indented to distinguish one from another if desired)
- THE CLEAVE –so similar to the above to be almost indistinguishable – I’ve seen it defined as 3 poems but ‘the inventor’ only states 2! Seems the poems blend together across each line to make one poem.
- The REVERSO – two poems in one with the 2nd one being read from the bottom to the top.