Tableau 4: The Melting of the Ice

by Laura Taylor

Thursday 20th August 2015 9:31 am

Spring-clean, fresh

dressed in flannelette

and floral,

the Snow Queen pales

against her pillow.

Limb-tidy, quiet

in a final contemplation,

seeing neither near nor far

though knowing earth beneath a primal sky

will be the regal destination.

The King rests

gathers strength

we linger

balm for breakfast

windows open

letting snow depart

in spiral.

In golden mourn, lilies sing

of innocence beyond,

and line by line

letting go

kaleidoscopic tableaux of emotion

lay to rest

in hymn, divine.

In sibling texts

a reassuring x remains;

we see each other more

than just at Christmas.

Comments

Laura Taylor

Mon 24th Aug 2015 12:20

Hiya Stu - sorry for the delay, busy weekend! Thank you so much :)

I think it's amazing that you've pulled all that out of the pieces. Isn't interpretation a wonderful thing?

It doesn't seem wrong to say 'well done' at all - you know why? Because although you may see me as an 'established poet', each new poem is in no way guaranteed to work, or be any good at all. I approach each one with nervous anticipation. I never really know if they'll be any good until I reach a certain point with them, the internal tickle that says 'oh yehhh, now that feels good'. Until that point it's still a thousand lines of shit :D

Nice one on the gig!! Get you eh - singing!

Stu Buck

Fri 21st Aug 2015 13:37

just reread the whole piece and it really is great. full of lines that stick in the brain, full of sensual imagery and rhythm. like ive said before, i read differently each time. ive done reincarnation, forgiveness, conceiving a child, sleepless nights of longing and family strife. its brilliant. it seems wrong for a newbie to say well done to an established poet, but i said it. so there. the gig was good by the way. i even sung a bit from brenda #2. not many people there but it was a nice place. anyway. great poem!

Laura Taylor

Thu 20th Aug 2015 10:25

Cheers Graham. I was aiming to create a sense of space, of peace, of relaxing, of it being over now. You've got me wondering now though. I wanted to break the pace up - maybe it just doesn't work though?

Yeh - I didn't want to initially blog the entire thing, but I think I will now, in a day or so.

Pretty ambitious piece of work for me, never done anything like this before, but yep, am pleased with it :)

Graham Sherwood

Thu 20th Aug 2015 09:58

This is indeed a tour de force piece of work. Not so sure about the staggered lines in V3 I think they distract from the read somewhat, but very effective words.

Will there be some way of gathering all this together to read as a completed work. I think it would be stronger.

Re: the last verse, someone needs to be the family sheepdog, herding everyone together occasionally. It's me in our family.

Laura, I hope you're pleased with this project and I hope it has satisfied YOU.

well done,

Graham

Laura Taylor

Thu 20th Aug 2015 09:33

This is the fifth and final part of a series of five interconnecting poems. Recent events in my life were preceded by hearing Finlandia, by Jean Sibelius, on the radio, and it so completely described how I was feeling that it took me over, and informs the whole series.

As a big nod to Sibelius, I've decided to use a loosely-based symphonic structure, so the parts are laid out like this:

The Melting of the Ice

Movements:

1. Prelude
2. Tableau 1: Return of the Snow Queen
3. Tableau 2: Night of Years
4. Tableau 3: Tempest
5. Tableau 4: The Melting of the Ice

If you wish to post a comment you must login.

Tableau 4: The Melting of the Ice

Comments

Please consider supporting us