Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Depth Charge With Marian (runawaysentence)




Hey Toads....Herotomost here and it is my very definite pleasure to provide the Tuesday Challenge this week. I so can't get over how fun it has been to be a part of this site. The happiness I feel revolves around the wonderful people and outstanding talent I have met here. This week, I had the fortune of getting to know Marian Kent, a.k.a. runawaysentence a little bit better.  I read through many of her past poems that I hadn't read to date and enjoyed her interviews and her prose, all amazing. She is as prolific as the day is long.  I am always impressed with writers who can navigate a sweeping description, conjure emotion that could drape the entire surface of the earth and float on rafts constructed of angry metaphors.  Add the atomic real bomb.....a little nugget that everyone can immediately identify with, a punch in the mouth, a "hey that is so my life" and you have poetry that encompasses span (horizontal) and depth (vertical). Going deep is what Marian does very well and it stems from her outstanding sense of what's real and how people react to that reality.

Soooo.....my challenge to her was to read the following quote from Stephen King's Duma Key ( I so love it) and write a poem inspired by the quote:

"Be prepared to see it all. If you want to create--God help you if you do, God help you if you can--don't you dare commit the immorality of stopping on the surface.  Go deep and take your fair salvage. Do it no matter how much it hurts."


                                  - Stephen King, Duma Key

For all you King haters....pretend someone else said it...cuz...that is a killer quote I think.

Marian didn't just show up for the contest, she came in pen blazing, a pocket full of depth charges, and a map to China via a straight line right through the center of the earth.  I am super proud of her and hope you all will welcome this one with open arms and open minds....here we go.






salvage
Like that desert rock I long
to sprawl across, arching my spine,
fire radiating from back to belly,
my heat rising, you're hard, strong,
of the earth.               
                But you are cold,
flinching at my joyful tug on your
heartsleeve at the moment he said
I can't feel this way much longer,
expecting to survive, and he's right,
I cannot.        
            Regularly you play me
like Elliott Easton's guitar, loud
and with power.              
                  Then like a peony
bud, tightly wrapped, heavy with ants,
I heave and fling open, showing off,
reaching for the ground.                       
                           I can hear
no song but yours, my bouquet tuned
to your sun.             
               Those are my salad days.

Your untouchableness and my
frailty are difficult to think about,
harder to write.               
                   I move through days
contained and staid, a juniper bonsai
with cello and piano soundtrack,
occasionally bursting out in song and
dance, k-pow! like a Jet jonesing for
a rumble.     
            Mostly, it's better to
pretend all is well, steady on like
hardy perennials, reliable for spring
fireworks, like dogwood, lilac, or my
favorite, forsythia, year after year,
no redress necessary.                                  
                        But sleeping
alone means slow death.                      
                          So I'm
composing you a ripe symphony in
rainbow colors, tracing like hyacinth
and needing to be tended.



Haaaaaaa!!!!!!! Yeah baby!!! I told you, I told you, but you wouldn't believe!

Marian...thank you so much for putting up with my nonsense....and for being one of my favorites around these parts. Big round of applause, and keep on writing Girly Q...cuz we deserve it!


35 comments:

Kay L. Davies said...

A fabulous response to the challenge, Marian.
I'm nominating Corey for president of your fan club!
K

Kerry O'Connor said...

Unbelievably Brilliant!

Wow! Wow! Wow!

I think this is my favourite favourite poem of yours Marian. In fact, I would not even add in the qualifier (of yours) and stop at poem. I understand the image of a deep sea explosion, because that is what you have wrought here.
This certainly has horizon and altitude. I pick these lines, because I can't retype the whole poem in this space:

I can hear
no song but yours, my bouquet tuned
to your sun...

But I'm taking the whole poem with me.

Kerry O'Connor said...

And to Corey...

I read HALF of Duma Key. And I made it that far for you, my friend... none of this "hater" business, you hear!

I'm so proud of you for putting together this challenge in such an awesome way, and thankful that you have become a part of our RT community, because we all need a bit of your heroic magic.

Thanks to both of you for making this girl's Tuesday morning a thing to wake up to.

Fireblossom said...

Dayum. Marian takes the prompt and kicks its ass! There is so much here. The contrasting pulls of dependability/predictable normalcy and then the fireworks that get the blood pumping.

Excellent challenge, Hero. Btw, I just recently finished "11/22/63", which makes about umpty zillion King books I have read. A couple of them stunk ("Gerald's Game", "Bag Of Bones", I'm talking about you!) but the rest were all marvelous.

Marian said...

i *love* Stephen King, though I haven't yet read Duma Key (i probably should, given my challenge here, so it's on the list). thank you, Corey, for a challenging challenge and for being fun to play with while i worked on this. *hat tip to corey*

Marian said...

also, did you just call my Girly Q?! hah!

Susie Clevenger said...

Marian, what a fantastic response to the prompt..I am in awe. Corey, great job on this challenge. I bow to both of you at your talent. Shoot, I need to go back to the poetic drawing board!!

Other Mary said...

WOW!!! That's brilliant! Really.

Maude Lynn said...

I love it. I just love it.

"like a Jet jonesing for
a rumble."

Yes!

Lance said...

I like how your took the inspiration part of the quote and made it fit in your heart.

Elliot Easton's guitar? what a metaphor.

There are no wasted words, just pure lovely strength. awesome, Marian

Sherry Blue Sky said...

WOW! This is SPECTACULAR. GREAT prompt and presentation, Corey, and, Marian........no words for how deep and wide and all-encompassing and resonant this is. Yoiks! (See? No words.) Just freaking fantastic.

Ella said...

I love the wonder your words invite!
Corey you showcased Marian's talent in rare form,as it should be. I love Marian's voice and your post.
I grew up in Maine; I m a King fan ..
And a fan of the two of you

Mary B. Mansfield said...

Standing ovation for this one!!

Marian said...

*curtseys and blushes*

Anonymous said...

brilliant, Marian - I was in awe of your writing ability before, now what am I supposed to do? ;) - kudos to you too, Corey, for a great challenge

Scarlet said...

I love it Marian...I specially like
:
Your untouchableness and my
frailty are difficult to think about,
harder to write.

Corey, great challenge~

Cheers to both of you ~

Herotomost said...

Thanks for making the challenge so successful everyone, and thanks for playing with me M......you rock!

hedgewitch said...

This is one of the coolest poems I've read in awhile (and I've read about sixty poems tonight, so I ain't messin.) Marian I am so with you on the peony/ants image--i once used it in a poem I wrote about Marilyn Monroe, in fact--it's one I love, and the other garden metaphors all were equally vivid--nothing says passion like the sex of flowers, I always say. Fine work--and thanks Corey for that King quote--he spooks me too much to read any more because he is THAT good, but I'm thinking I may have to try that one now.

Hannah said...

This is exactly the kind of writing that inspires me, challenges me to be a better writer. To just keep pushing them out, birthing them into the broad-blue until everything makes sense.

Really loved your introduction to Marian, that in itself was great writing, paired with a great quote, (lover of King or not) and SUCH an amazing poem.

Perfect way to end my day! Thank you!

shawnacy said...

hoooooly.
i'm wayyy to zonked to try any sort of coherent comment... but....
the peony bud, tightly wrapped, heavy with ants... ?

KO.

great call on the quote Corey.

Mystic_Mom said...

This is totally wow...and I'm just blown away! Great poem, and the quote was a total K.O. too!

Marian said...

you lovely people. and now who will be the next poet to be challenged?!?! heh heh heh.

Anonymous said...

That IS a killer quote: "don't you dare commit the immorality of stopping on the surface"

Wow, Marian. You did go deep. I love these sections:

"I can hear no song but yours, my bouquet tuned to your sun. Those are my salad days."

"a juniper bonsai with cello and piano soundtrack"

"tracing like hyacinth and needing to be tended"

~Shawna
rosemarymint.wordpress.com

Marian said...

:) sigh.

Susan said...

What a pleasure. Deep and resonant, not soon to leave me. Thank you for raising this poem from the deep, thank you for the book, thank you from the rich soil of my own garden where I now must go to seek my favorite. I'm sure it will be in a Toad prompt. I take with me an unfinished symphony in percussion and strings.

Herotomost said...

You, you did kill it....came back to make sure...it is killed and you committed the the REDRUM.

Anonymous said...

le sigh. ~

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Yes. So good! Am happy I got the chance to read this again. It is fan-freaking-tastic. (Wasnt this a cool idea of Fireblossom's? Am loving it!)

Kerry O'Connor said...

Just as splendid a read as it was the first time around!

Susie Clevenger said...

Love the revisit to this one!!

Hannah said...

Just like before, I love Corey's description of your writing, Marian...absolute truth. :)

I love the likening to the plants, Marian. It so works and unveils layer after layer of delicious beautiful meaning.

*sigh*

So inspired and inspiring.

I'm glad you brought this one to the surface again. ♥

Helen said...

I missed this first time around so naturally I am over the moon right now!

Anonymous said...

Hey Marian -- a very heartfelt poem bursting with energy and a kind of wonderful metaphoric precision - describes these age-old dilemmas so well - how two people combine/manage/love. Thanks much. k.

Fireblossom said...

My comment from the time is still up there, so let me just add, thanks so much for being part of FBF, and kudos for thinking of using a Toads project for it!

hedgewitch said...

I was about to say something about passion, and the peony and ant thing, but then saw I already said it, probably better, the first time. The poem is every bit as good re-read as on the firstie.