Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No. 42 Eagle Rising

EAGLE RISING

The eagle in this poem is the Australian wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax). Its tail is actually more of a v shape and it is one of the largest flying birds in the world. Seeing them rise and soar is quite a sight with their wingspan being between 6 feet to 7 feet 5 inches.

EAGLE RISING

Look there!

Upon that dead,

decapitated tree trunk, bare

in contrast with the sunlit spread

of greenness after recent rain,

hunches

a huge, dark bird-

too massive for a melancholy crow,

this holds an eagle attitude.

It sees me, launches free,

lays wide wings on the spiral of the air

and circles upwards with an easy care,

eyes scanning. Long feathers on wings’ ends

like fingers feel sky breath.

A solitary peewee chases,

crying for its death.

It pays it no mind, for that is dwarfed,

and even flapping fiercely falls behind.

At home on the highways of the winds,

it rides the unseen, rising path.

Still poised so true,

it dwindles

into its far, unfeatured,

fenceless

pastures of the blue.

Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 41 Down the Road

DOWN THE ROAD

This was written as a song lyric. The road is a venerable (or clichéd -depending on your viewpoint)

metaphor for life's journey. The lyric works in a common way for songs- with the introductory verse and the development verses similar in form and melody, then there is a "bridge" (here in italics) with a different melody and then a concluding verse that returns to the original melody.

DOWN THE ROAD

Down the road we travel on

We'll see rain and we'll see sun;

We'll find loss and we'll find gain,

We'll feel joy and we'll feel pain.

Down the road we travel on

Sometimes you trip, sometimes you're stung

By icy winds blown from beyond

And the clouds conceal the sun.

Down the road we travel on

Sometimes you stroll on in the sun-

And all the world just seems to sing

And you're in love with everything.

And beyond that last horizon,

Where the golden sun is fleeing,

Where the only thing you carry

Is your being and your seeing,

Will we find it all had reason

Will we find it can we know?

Sometimes my

Heart's silence

Tells me so.

But at times I wonder...

When at dusk I feel night's shadow-

But it's the same for everyone

O, down the road we travel on.

Down the Road  (video of song)

Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No. 40 Unicorn

UNICORN

Originally written for younger readers, this poem was published in the NSW School Magazine. However, it has, I think, a little subtext about the slightly more fantastical but fun side of imagination that could appeal to older readers as well.

  

Unicorn- Mark Scrivener

          UNICORN

In the moon-glow, bright and white,

On the midnight's deep,

In the beams of dreaming light,

Over the city asleep,

On the clouds' white glaze,

Past the stars, on night's dark ways,

Something is softly stamping its feet.

Is it only the far thunder's beat?

Is it only a drifting, bright cloud

On the edge of the rise of the storm?

Or is it a prancing and proud,

Moon-born unicorn?

Its voice is the far ocean's swell,

It rides on the moon's silent beams;

Its horn is a white, spiralled shell,

Its path is the pathway of dreams.

On the edge of the rise of the storm,

Over the city asleep,

Is it a drift of bright cloud?

Or is it a prancing and proud,

Moon-born unicorn,

Softly, softly stamping its feet?

Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No. 39 Sirius

SIRIUS

Sirius is the brightest star in the sky due to its relative nearness (8.6 light years) and its brightness (intrinsically 25 times as bright as our sun). In fact, it has a tiny white dwarf companion star, difficult to see due to the brightness of the main star that even in a small telescope it is remarkably bright. This poem is a reflection upon that experience of viewing it. Sothis is the Greek version of its Egyptian name. 

SIRIUS

I turn the white tube of the telescope

upon that brightest, white, white star

and see far in the far

a blaze of light, its brilliance finer

than any jewel or precious stone

that shines by stolen glow alone.

Bright Sothis, Sirius, you are

all the sky’s most splendid star.

The old sky-lining of

Hellenic legend drew you as

the dog star, the hound’s eye of

the greater, faithful creature following

Orion, the hunter through

the turning of the night.

And in ancient Egypt's lore

you were seen as sacred star,

one whose rising in the palest wash

of the hushed, dawn-hinting sky

beckoned coming flooding of the Nile.

You are still to sight

greatest star in all the night,

brightest far sun in the darkness.

Our cultures, civilisations, go and come,

yet you shine on, oh, distant sun,

across the paths of harbouring vastness,

across time's endless transformations.

I gaze in awe and dimly feel

affinity to being, boundless and

beyond these thoughts.

Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No 38. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (From the German of Goethe)

THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE

This ballad is a translation or English version of a German poem by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, the author of Faust. It is, perhaps, still relevant as the archetypal warning about summoning or creating that which you cannot control. The basic tale can be found in a work Philópseudēs ("Lover of Lies") by Lucien AD 150. Paul Dukas wrote an orchestral piece based on this poem and that music was the basis of the famous sequence with Mickey Mouse as the apprentice in Disney's Fantasia. It was also the basis of the more recent Disney film of the same name. 

THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE

after the German of Goethe

So, for once, he's gone away,

Gone the old witch lord, that's great!

Now his spirits shall obey,

Live and act as I dictate!

Words, ways, workings now,

I've seen what to do,

And with spirits' power

I'll work wonders too.

Wander, wander

Many paths

That to baths

Water flows,

Brought in right, full floods from yonder,

Down into the tub it goes.

And now come, you old, old broom!

Dress in rotten rags, I say.

Long you've served us in this room:

Now obey my will, obey!

Take two legs below,

Have a head above,

Hurry now and go

With the water jug!

Wander, wander

Many paths

That to baths

Water flows,

Brought in right, full floods from yonder,

Down into the tub it goes.

Look he runs down to the brink!

Yes, he's at the river's gleam,

Back again, quick as a wink,

Pours it in a rushing stream.

Here a second time!

Now the tub fills up!

Swelling waters line

Every basin's top!

Still! Stand here!

Of this stuff

We've enough

For today!-

Oh! I see! Oh, dear, oh, dear!

I've forgotten what to say!

Oh, the word that would indeed

Make it what it was before.

Oh, it runs and brings with speed!

Would you were a broom once more!

Ever new, new fills

It brings here instead

And a hundred spills

Pours upon my head.

No, no longer

Can I leave it;

I shall seize it,

Thing of spite!

How my fear grows ever stronger!

What a face- the eyes alight!

Oh! you offspring of foul hell,

Shall the whole, whole house be drowned?

I see every threshold swell

With the running streams all round.

Cursed broom won't, I fear,

Listen anymore!

Stick, change back, you hear.

Stand still as before!

Will it never,

Never leave it?

I shall seize it,

I shall catch it,

This old wood I'll quickly sever,

Split it with the sharp, sharp hatchet.

See, again it's trundling back!

Right, I'll stop its masquerade.

Goblin, I shall knock you flat;

Crack, it's hit with sharp, smooth blade.

Truly, well hit, man!

It's in two, just see!

Now I hope I can

Breathe more easily.

Woe, oh woe!

Both the parts

Stand and start

Serving now,

Fully ready, set to go!

Help me, oh! you high-born powers!

Away they run now! Wet and wetter

On the steps and in the hall,

What a ghastly lot of water!

Lord and master! Hear my call!-

Ah! my master's here!

Sir, I'm all messed up!

Spirits I called near,

I can't make them stop.

"To the corner,

Broom, oh, broom,

And your former

Role resume!

For, as spirit,

To such purpose, none command

You, but your old master's hand."

© Mark Scrivener 2015