Enga mellom fjella

Omen above ice

Omen above ice

Below the circle of dark wings,
white head, white tail feathers,
soaring above the fountain of water
bubbling froth from a hole in the ice,
the kayakers brave the roar of the river,
the ice choked channels narrowed and vicious,
the slush by the shore treacherous and viscous.

O dark wings that soar against the white
of the mountains, the blue gaps in grey skies,
what hunger has brought you to hunt by the river
to appear to the kayakers
like an omen of the break-up of ice.

© 2008 Kåre Enga [165.386] 2008-12-26

Based on images yesterday of kayakers, water bubbling up through a hole in the ice in the Clark Fork, a bald eagle circling overhead.

BLAH BLAH BLAH:

Not in the mood to go to a party today even though I was invited and I should. Headache from last night is gone; although, there are other small issues ... nah, I'll stay home or go to the coffee shop nearby.

I don't need to be social everyday of the week, do I?

MILLSTONES and MILESTONES:

Read "Speak soft my name"  if you already haven't. No tears shed in this poem; Nature is not sentimental. It approaches 100 reviews; has 98. Asking for reviews is dicey though ... recently got a couple I will need to think about. Not everyone gets it. Also ... seems lots of folks are visual and this is an audio poem that should unfold to get the impact. It's not a glance-at-and-dissect-the-literary-meaning kind of poem. Interestingly, few object to its first-person-from-Nature's point-of-view.

One reviewer thought "First drum set"  was sentimental. Well ... how DO you capture a two year old banging on drums? I write so few poems with internal joy. Once again it is audio and the sounds and rhythms are an essential part of the poem. If one can't hear it, one will not enjoy it. In any case it has 811 views and 93 reviews.

I know that "Speak soft my name" is a good poem. Too many people really really like it. It's on my A list. "First drum set" is enjoyed by many, mostly anyone with young children or grandchildren or those who had drum sets as a child. One reviewer suggested "Highlights" as a place to send in for publication; that would seem a good fit. However, it isn't a great poem. Good will do and overall it is an A-.

So why the angst? It is difficult to discern what is what with the reviews. My main goal in promoting them is getting folks to read them. Both are timely. The tsunami that hit Indonesia did so on the 26th of December, 2004 the same day "First drum set" was written.

Odd isn't it?

I should just send them off to publishers. Some editor somewhere might like them. But which ones? Getting published is a crap shoot unless you have a specific style that works well with a handful of magazines. And ... there are magazines out there that may be prestigious, but their poems are crap IMHO. It is all personal taste and the taste of the editor is the only one that matters.

"Speak soft my name" has the added burden of being different. Which some folks like a lot. But it makes it difficult to know what to do with it.

BLOGVILLE

I'm making progress. If I haven't visited yet, I will soon.

Montana: 26.1º at 15:27

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