Ugh. I am not satisfied with this one, but I felt like I had to do some kind of poem this evening. This is for Donna’s prompt, inspired by Melissa Stein’s “Robber Girl”; I’ve heard nothing but praises for her collection Rough Honey, and this poem is a clear example. I tried to appropriate (rob!) as much of the aspect of it as I could in one go, and fell woefully flat. But this is an attempt, at least, to have the “robber girl” persona show through a bit, as well as be a somewhat simplified sonnet and have a word-becoming-another-word. Tried to concentrate certain sounds through the poem, keep a bit of rhyme in, and have a sort-of-turn that didn’t work at all. I’m proud of how transpose can be re-arranged to patroness though.
But still, I need to go think of something better.
Stolen Sermon
What does the goddess of thieves desire?
Intangible things: the taste of apples
in August, the juice scooped from skins like rough
gems offered with a slight hand. She appears
when the lock is broken, the knot undone.
And your prayer’s never answered without a price:
a bee dance, a genie of ice and fire.
What does the woman with everything want?
You’ll know it when it slips through your fingers:
a jeweled word, a song, dimly unwound and
unheard. She swallows a little more light
out of the world: just a scrap at a time.
How easy does knighted transpose to night:
what does its patroness crave as she nears?
I know when you say “ugh” that it will be a good draft. You are WAY too hard on yourself.
I agree. This is a highly accomplished response to the prompt – one that I couldn’t have written in a million years.
http://vivinfrance.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/the-robber-girl-a-sonnet/
Donna: I’m only hard on myself to push myself further. :)
Viv: you are too hard on yourself too! I think it’s something we’re all guilty of.