John Coopey

YGGDRASIL

by John Coopey

Tuesday 1st March 2016 7:42 am

Beneath the roots of the Tree of Life,

The mythical Yggdrasil,

Live the Three Sisters of Fortune,

Three spinners sit weaving still.

Our fortunes favoured, fortunes damned,

Are spun to dusk from dawn,

The destinies of every man

Ordained before we’re born.

Spun threads of rope and threads of silk

And threads of finest gold;

With every one a path of life

The Spinners have foretold.

Embittered entertainment prompts

Their play with our distress;

They weft and warp our misery

With transient happiness.

Even the most blessed threads

May still incur their wrath,

Sometimes are spun through deeper roots

To weave a darker cloth.

The rarest threads, the bravest lives

Led so resolutely,

But as with gold debase to dust

Corrupted absolutely.

They spin the hopes we seek fulfilled,

And bring them dashing down

They weave our ways to where they wish

Then laugh beneath the ground.

Life’s choices are illusory,

And false we have free will;

Oh cruel Sisters of the Tree!

Oh fickle Yggdrasil!

◄ WHAT ARE THE ODDS?

The Moorland Train ►

Comments

John Coopey

Sat 5th Mar 2016 15:30

Wyrd bid ful araed, Yvonne. Fate is inexorable.

Yvonne Brunton

Sat 5th Mar 2016 12:29

oh what a tangled web they weave
That leads Man carelessly to believe
His one insatiable goal:
To have the world in his control.

Great poem with the rhythm pulsing inexorably, emphasising the theme of no escape from fate.
I enjoyed this.

John Coopey

Fri 4th Mar 2016 14:08

Cheers, Ray. I think everyone thinks their voice is more sonorous until you hear it played back. Mine always seems a timorous squawk to me!

raypool

Fri 4th Mar 2016 10:20

Listening to your rendition of this fine poem for me was a great experience and illustrates so sharply how a good reading can convey a poem John.
I envy your measured tones - dare I try this at home?!

Ray

John Coopey

Thu 3rd Mar 2016 23:26

Thanks, MC. I confess it is a re-post from 4/5 years ago.

M.C. Newberry

Thu 3rd Mar 2016 17:41

The opposite "book-end" to frame this poet's collection
of more humorous material. Read with conviction in the
best tradition of myth and magic.

John Coopey

Wed 2nd Mar 2016 14:46

Thanks, Ian. I missed yours first time round. It certainly adds to what I knew about Yggdrasil.

Ian Whiteley

Wed 2nd Mar 2016 00:46

good stuff John - it is an interesting myth - I wrote something on it a while ago - but gave it a twist into more modern problems: http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=33868

John Coopey

Tue 1st Mar 2016 22:48

Thankyou, Victor.
I believe it got printed in an anthology of "ghost" verse, called something like "Pressed by Unseen Feet", along with a tribute to a former Tottenham player called "The Ghost of White Hart Lane".

Victor Grauer

Tue 1st Mar 2016 21:43

This is an excellent piece of work, beautifully crafted and beautifully spoken as well. I'm assuming your work has been published somewhere?

John Coopey

Tue 1st Mar 2016 17:57

Yes, Harry, I confess I don't buy into that abrogation of personal responsibility stuff. It's all a cop-out to me. But it does make a cracking coat hanger for a yarn.
Also, my nod towards Bernard Cornwell doesn't do the great man anywhere near enough justice. The line about weaving a darker cloth, for example, is total plagiarism on my part.

Harry O'Neill

Tue 1st Mar 2016 17:41

Nice clear and rhythmic re-telling of an old myth John, I know almost nothing about Nordic myth but am often impressed by the way the `warlikeness` of it seems to be
effective in poetical terms.

This is a kind of fatalistic one (it seems to tell that things just seem to happen to us rather than us `doing` them)

As Lancs (and your last stanza) point out the core of the thing seems to be that we are not responsible for our own actions . (It`s a great alibi)

John Coopey

Tue 1st Mar 2016 16:57

Many thanks for your kind comments, fellas.
Lancs - you've added to my limited knowledge about the mythology. I didn't know about the animals.
I have to acknowledge an enormous debt of gratitude to the writings of Bernard Cornwell who is the gateway to my researching the historical basis of his stories.
"Wyrd bid ful aread".

raypool

Tue 1st Mar 2016 13:39

Very fine almost epic poem John. Completely satisfying and even in my ignorance of the subject it still gripped me ! Lovely to read a rhyming style from time to time.

Ray

jan oskar hansen

Tue 1st Mar 2016 12:58

I liked tis poem it Had a Snorre quality to it

Martin Elder

Tue 1st Mar 2016 09:20

I think you have woven a cracking poem here John. I love the way the rhythm of the piece literally weaves itself. Nice one

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