This midweek’s challenge was meant to be the word Narrow, but someone beat us to the post, so we’ve gone with the opposite and used the word BROAD! Please go over and visit the “Weekly Prompts” fabulous site by clicking >>Here. Below, my unusual and overly broad poem, has both ‘narrow’ and ‘broad’ within the contentious meaning of my poem…..
My Neighbour Wasn’t Mowing His Lawn
I saw a broad sign, painted by His hand
the words, I did not understand
I thought why? Put another brick in wall
ascending the crooked ladder, too afraid to fall
there I stood alone, and stared
above the galaxy’s glare
my retinas were burning
last night’s moon had fallen
beyond the broad blue dawn
and my neighbour wasn’t mowing his lawn
I then saw in our narrowing crevasse
the universe, in a blade of grass
Ivor Steven (c) Feb 2020
reminds me of the neighbour in a sitcom called Home Improvement, he was always peering across the wooden fence to check on his neighbours. i do love your mystical last two lines, in a blade of grass, a universe, I wanted to be Alice and take your hand and say “let’s go! now!” – i love this poem for so many reasons!
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Thank you Gina, this might be my 3rd go at rewriting the poem. I was having myriad of thoughts through the layers here….. a mixture of doom and gloom with those hints of hope…
I’m still ascending….
the dawn is broad and blue….
and we are merely a blade of grass, in this ever changing universe…. 💙🌏
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reworking is great Ivor, getting to the source of your inspiration and bones of the poem. i do hope you keep the blade of grass, I really liked that imagery
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Oh, this is so different and I like it a lot. Love the graphic too! Very clever using both Narrow and Broad. Thank you, Ivor xx🙂
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I’m pleased you like my crazy mixed up poem….
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Deep, thought provoking.
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Thank you Sadje, a poem I’ve revised a few times, trying to get my ideas right. Here I think I’ve nearly got it… 💙🌏😉
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It is excellent.
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💙🌏
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👍
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I do like the contrast – trying to find answers in the broad galaxy when all he needed to do was to narrow in on a blade of grass. Sometimes the meaning of life whispers instead of shouts. Maybe the neighbor has already discovered this – hence letting his lawn grow?
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I love your interpretation Irma, very close to what I was trying to express….. despite all the doom and gloom in our world, we are but a blade of grass in the universe….. and we are yet to ascend the ladder into the infinite beyond our dreams……
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“One must never cut thy neighbour’s
grass, unless one desireth a karmic
kick in the arse.”
~ Maximus the Repentant
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Oh, I cut my neighbour’s grass this morning
I said I was sorry, I didn’t see his weed bush
I should’ve gone to ‘spec-savers’
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Yes indeed, Ivor. You don’t want
to make a spectacle of yourself 👀
Especially when you’re been on
the neighbour’s weed bush 😎🚬
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Best I run, leave the chopped bush behind
and head to the pub this afternoon
for a bit of friendly cheer and a beer
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A most interesting poem, Ivor.
You’ve reminded me of a favourite
Dylan song of mine;
In the time of my confession,
in the hour of my deepest need
When the pool of tears beneath my feet
floods every newborn seed
There’s a dying voice within me
reaching out somewhere
Toiling in the danger
and the morals of despair
Don’t have the inclination
to look back on any mistake
Like Cain, I now behold this chain
of events that I must break
In the fury of the moment
I can see the master’s hand
In every leaf that trembles,
in every grain of sand
Oh, the flowers of indulgence
and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the
breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beams down upon the steps
of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness
and the memory of decay
I gaze into the doorway
of temptation’s angry flame
And every time I pass that way
I’ll always hear my name
Then onward in my journey
I come to understand
That every hair is numbered
like every grain of sand
I have gone from rags to riches
in the sorrow of the night
In the violence of a summer’s dream,
in the chill of a wintry light
In the bitter dance of loneliness
fading into space
In the broken mirror of innocence
on each forgotten face
I hear the ancient footsteps
like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn,
there’s someone there,
other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance
of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling,
like every grain of sand
~ Bob Dylan
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Yep… I’ve got it up now on YouTube, ‘Every Grain of Sand”….thanks for the lyrics….. I’ve copied them into my notebook……. his words are awesome….
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Sometimes the most important things in life…like the mysteries of life, etc., are found in the most unexpected places…sometimes in the tiniest of things. 🙂
I feel we human-beans are so small in comparison with the universe, the sky, the ocean, the land, etc…and we should be so grateful to be here to see and experience it all. 🙂
GREAT poem, Ivor! 🙂
HUGS!!! 🙂
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I’m so pleased you understand the significance of my words Carolyn, ‘we are but a blade of grass ‘… I’m still ascending the ladder,…. the broad blue dawn is still rising… and we are all still here… 💙🌏🤗
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Yes!!! 🙂
I feel this way in so many places, and times…just one example, when Coop and I take a late night or early morning walk…I stare at the vast sky, the millions of stars, the amazing moon…and I say “Thank you for letting me be a small part of all of this wonder!” 🙂
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