Daily Poem Entries

Incoherence

Excerpt from Home Burial
by Robert Frost

He saw her from the bottom of the stairs
Before she saw him. She was starting down,
Looking back over her shoulder at some fear.
She took a doubtful step and then undid it
To raise herself and look again. He spoke
Advancing toward her: ‘What is it you see
From up there always—for I want to know.’
She turned and sank upon her skirts at that,
And her face changed from terrified to dull.
He said to gain time: ‘What is it you see,’
Mounting until she cowered under him.
‘I will find out now—you must tell me, dear.’
She, in her place, refused him any help
With the least stiffening of her neck and silence.
She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see,
Blind creature; and awhile he didn’t see.
But at last he murmured, ‘Oh,’ and again, ‘Oh.’

From which I extracted:

Incoherence

From the bottom
of the fear
she spoke,
always terrified,
until,
stiffening her neck,
she murmured,
"Oh," and again, "Oh."


Line count: 8
Free verse
For The Daily Poem, Sept 2022
Prompt: Using either of the prompts below, create a redacted poem.
Note: I began by assuming you meant the whole poem. It was only when I had nearly finished that Ned drew my attention to the explanatory exchange in the forum that made it clear only the excerpts were to be used. Having made my choice of poems, I was loth to change and considered what I had done thus far. It seemed to me that I could make eight lines that referenced only the excerpt if I merely shortened the lines that used that section. It worked well enough and even contained more meaning than my original rambling and increasingly confused effort.