Friday, April 10, 2015

PO-EMotion -- Dejection

WHINE OF THE MEDUSOZOA

I belong to a bloom of jellies,
we've adapted to the tidal flux,
you'd think after 500 million years
we'd have brains...no such luck.

No brains, no eyes*, no stomach, no lungs,
just a floating gelatinous blob.
We drift with the current eating plankton and such,
hunting passively...a boring job.

I'll never see mountains or prairies or sky,
never walk on dry land with real legs,
never soar with a butterfly, bluebird or hawk,
never sing...my life is the dregs.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2015

*"Certain species of jellyfish, such as the box jellyfish, have been revealed to have more advanced vision than their counterparts. The box jellyfish has 24 eyes, two of which are capable of seeing color, and four parallel information processing areas or rhopalia that act in competition, supposedly making it one of the few creatures to have a 360-degree view of its environment." --from Wikipedia







Carol, at Carol's Corner, will join me again this year as often as possible.

Kimberley, at iWrite in Maine, is joining me this month. 


Kay, at A Journey Through the Pages, is joining, too!
Kay shares the dejection of a reader.

Steve, at inside the dog, is sharing his poems 
in the comments at Poetrepository.


Heidi, at my juicy little universe, will join us when she can.


Linda, at TeacherDance, will join as often as she can.
Check the comments at A Year of Reading or Poetrepository for her poems.


Kevin (Kevin's Meandering Mind) is back this year,
leaving poetry trax in the comments.


Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 


Jone, at DeoWriter, is doing a "double L" challenge. 
She and I are cross-poLLinating our challenges whenever possible. 



Laura has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Writing the World for Kids

7 comments:

  1. How witty (and informative!) For some reason, I really loved that little asterisk, and, of course, the words "floating gelatinous blob" are right up my alley. Thank you for a funny poem on Dejection Day! :)

    Mine were less funny, but a hawk did swoop through one of mine, too. Experimenting with tanka, but not the 31 syllable, 5-7-5-7-7 version, but the shorter 5 line stuff in the 20-24 syllable range. (I was reading that since Japanese syllables are smaller, English haiku and tanka actually seem large in comparison.) Tried to keep the "hinge" though, which is such a lovely reason to write and read tanka.

    there's this side of dejection...

    high above, a hawk
    floats near the sun --
    my father rearranges
    the cord to his
    oxygen tank

    and this...because I wanted the other side, too:

    water riffles cast
    light and shadow
    on a patient clam --
    sorrow crumbles
    and drifts away

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    Replies
    1. Tethered and untethered. Perfect.

      Glad you found a way to let the sorrow go.

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    2. ...and about mine -- I was totally cracking myself up with a jellyfish who had no brain and yet knew enough to be sad about all those things in the last stanza...HOW?!?! :-)

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  2. Oh my. The epitome of dejected. Poor, beautiful, brainless, gelatinous blob!

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  3. "just a floating gelatinous blob"

    That blob sure has a way with words - I hate to giggle at his/her wordplay when so sad...but still...the cleverness!

    x

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  4. Is this also a poem for the feeling of irony? Hee. I was supposed to be joining you in a dejection poem on this day but I was in New York feeling distinctly undejected, so I'll go back to joy...

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  5. Oh, the lists of nevers for this poor jellyfish. Never to see mountains or prairies? I can't imagine.

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