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Imagining Animals

FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Posts: 12,223
edited April 2005 in Poetry, Prose, Music & Art
Ted Hughes often set exercises such as this one. Write a poem about an animal in an outdoor nightscape.

However, I am going to give this old exercise a bit of a twist and stipulate here that your poem must be in the first person, from the animal's perspective. Try to get the feel of moving in the animal's skin or fur; try to capture the feel of the night as experienced by the animal.

:)
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    Hi Finsbubble.....

    or feathers....I am Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.....my little bubs loves birds....for this exercise I'll be a bird.....but I'll have to put it off....until I'm more composed.....hehehehehe :)
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • ISNISN Posts: 1,700
    no edit....sorry....mea culpa.....

    I might be Keat's nightingale....or an owl.....or a finch or swallows at sunset in Madrid.....but I gotta be a bird
    ....they're asking me to prove why I should be allowed to stay with my baby in Australia, because I'm mentally ill......and they think I should leave......
  • PJfaninmainePJfaninmaine Posts: 216
    Oh wow this is awesome! we finally get our forum back. Hope your doing well Fins good to see ya. I will try to think of something to post on here for ya,. been kind of out of the writing lately.
    Take care of yourself
    ((((((((((hugs))))))))))
    pjfaninmaine
    If being sane is thinking there's something wrong with being different....I'd rather be completely fucking mental.
    (Angelina Jolie)
  • heaveheave Posts: 159
    :):):):):):)
  • EvilToasterElfEvilToasterElf Posts: 1,119
    I can taste the dirt, and feel the footfalls of children compressing the Earth around me. The farther up I weave my body, the faster I knead my flesh like a baker's love into the soil, the better it tastes. It is so fresh near the surface, though I cannot see the colors, my palette describes for me visions of it's dark phosphates and rich irons. The roots of the grass descend like solid lightning around me with their curves, the Earth is wet here, and the moisture lathers my body, the rain makes my segments wiggle with autonomous pleasure. When I reach the surface the my body expands trying to fill all of the air with it's presence, it stretches to consume every drop, and I roll in the wet grass. The moons light descends as a wave, a brightness I can feel like the caress of another's shadow. Here I will roll like a tide of pleasure until the sun arrives to bake my delicate skin, before I chew my way back into the Earth, the place where I am unhomed, because I am always home.

    The Earthworm

    Be well Fins, I tried to venture back onto your forumns but my names weren't working.
  • ExTReMe FrEAkExTReMe FrEAk Posts: 118
    What is it that gives off this, foul stench? This odor which covers the scent of my fallen brothers? The very thought makes my fur stand on end. What is it that preys on my pack as if we were dear in the meadow? As I ponder these thoughts, a tide of rage rushes over me. Those bastards! They will pay with their lives! I reveal my fangs to the darkness around while catching this scent once again. As I run at full speed through the darkness, the odor begins to get stronger. Yes, I am on its path, soon I may have my vengeance. I run past many small trees that have been bent to one side, each of these having some form of stone vine attached to them. These stone vines are the very same which had been tightly wrapped around the throats of each of my brothers. I begin to loose thought as I hasten my steps. I growl as I hear something up ahead. The sound of snapping twigs and leaves have been drowned out, those steps are all I hear now. I can see this murder now, he runs for his life. This vile thing, this man, it must pay the price. The moon shines bright and I see shimmers of blood on this man as he begins to run wildly. He is mine! I sink my fangs into this mans leg, and he begins to cry out to the night. I can taste his flesh, so horrible, so rotten! I dash for his throat, I will spill his blood tonight. As I begin to tear in, I feel a sharp pain through my left shoulder. Kill him now! Worry about the shoulder later! His body lay lifeless, much like my brothers. I look towards the moon and let my vengeance and sorrow flow through me. I scream at the moon as loud as I can... to declare an end to my vendetta. Many others join in, out of respect for my pack, a chorus of all sing with much might. This cowardly man has paid his price, alone as I may be, I still have this night.

    -The Wolf
    Chasing a trail of smoke and reason.
  • Spot In The SkySpot In The Sky Posts: 1,175
    well hot dang
    very impressive anyone
    too intense for me, so ill just sit this one and continue to spectate.
    keep it up though, very interesting stuff.
    "The world is dangerous, feel safe here tonight..." EV 9/17/06

    38+6 shows at the age of 27 and counting...but still no Undone

    My podcast: Hotel Manager Talk- Dedicated to Hotel Employees, tell your friends. http://www.HotelManagerTalk.com
  • KwyjiboKwyjibo Posts: 662
    light footprints in the powder snow
    the smell of pheromones in the winter air
    my ear twitches at the thought
    and I push along the tracks

    the tracks lead into a clearing
    the stars and the planets
    are witnesses to the act
    the clear night air holds us in place
    as our bodies become one
    in the eternal embrace

    hunter's shots could fly around us
    bullets can fly, and bears can growl
    the coyotes can gather, and the wolves can howl
    but nothing
    nothing
    can stop us now
    The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway, is that its you, and that you're standing in the doorway.

    I write down good reasons to freeze to death in my spiral ring notebook. But in the long tresses of your hair--I am a babbling brook.
  • AliAli Posts: 2,621
    I taste dead flesh.
    (That's all I have right now..I just ate.)
    Sincerely,
    ali
    A whisper and a thrill
    A whisper and a chill
    adv2005

    "Why do I bother?"
    The 11th Commandment.
    "Whatever"

    PETITION TO STOP THE BAN OF SMOKING IN BARS IN THE UNITED STATES....Anyone?
  • KwyjiboKwyjibo Posts: 662
    bizump

    I like this thread, and I want to be able to find it later
    The most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway, is that its you, and that you're standing in the doorway.

    I write down good reasons to freeze to death in my spiral ring notebook. But in the long tresses of your hair--I am a babbling brook.
  • Ms. HaikuMs. Haiku Posts: 7,265
    with fresh gathered acorns
    along the branches
    who is the poet?
    There is no such thing as leftover pizza. There is now pizza and later pizza. - anonymous
    The risk I took was calculated, but man, am I bad at math - The Mincing Mockingbird
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Posts: 12,223
    Bumping this one. Any takers?
  • FinsburyParkCarrotsFinsburyParkCarrots Posts: 12,223
    My running mate awakens me, warm dark
    of rising fur, deep in the hollow den
    we prize for safety. A snarl, a bark:
    I'm nodded out toward the moongrey fen.
    Paws plod cold river paths and gaming trails;
    My eyes survey treeshadows, black on black
    bar bateye sparkles flashing; now young wails
    approach behind my stooping hunter's back:

    My brood. Long night of blood road travelling
    with yearlings, scenting fieldrush stranded hares,
    their heartbeats shaking reeds; unravelling
    night of roadturn ambush; night of flares
    of teeth in stargleam gnashing at the skin
    of moonblood silver shining dying prey:
    This is my night, to bring my mate, within
    the denning shadows of tenebrous grey

    Our plunder from an eastern river bed:
    I lead my pack, night free. Free wrath is fed.
  • EvilToasterElfEvilToasterElf Posts: 1,119
    When I can see the flash of shadows that accompany the smell I have traced through the air I charge. The smell travels to my nostrils like the wake of battered ground when the earth trembles, my legs do not belong to my brain, they belong to my nose, and alert my eyes to the herd feeding on the frail upper branches. Saplings bend under the weight of my hunger, the branches seem to bend out of the light to avoid my passing, the puddles ripple in perfect circles where I walk. When my teeth sever the cords of life from the docile creatures pinned under my leg, I can feel their blood, their pleas filling the cavities of my muscles, giving hideous strength to my feeble arms. When the sky turned bright, and the clouds parted I bellowed the blood of the dead into the air, until the fires stole the oxygen from my lungs, and darkness filled my vision. The death of my body was the beginning of the new life, a life of rocks squeezing the carbon of my bones, until I flowed in crude black life through the veins of the earth. I flowed through the ages, when ships sailed on the oceans finally returned, meandered through the mantle, when the birds had been eclipsed by the jet, I rose through the crust, until the currents of my world, so very long ago, fueled the great human stream in their travels across the crust that was paved with my death. The sky fell, the Earth died a little death, so that I could stop breaking the trees and the backs of the defenseless, so that I could pump my fury into a tank, and although slower than the pace of evolution, my body flies through the smoke filled air.

    I once ruled pangea, and now I rule the sky, I am the undisputed King of planet Earth, I am Tyranosaurus Rex.
  • oldermanolderman Posts: 1,765
    this present scent it leads me,
    to where i need to go,
    i am all about instinct,
    as is my destined glow,

    crazed bitches brew for me now,
    some kind and yet, some cruel,
    their likeness is my odor,
    i'll never be the fuel,

    of a hunter's maddened cross hair,
    to lie bleeding in the snow,
    a crunch of massive muscle,
    good fodder for hungry foe,

    into to the scent i crawl,
    it's that to which instinct leads,
    it's that which i dreamt last moment,
    yes, a time for sunflower seeds.

    :)
    Down the street you can hear her scream youre a disgrace
    As she slams the door in his drunken face
    And now he stands outside
    And all the neighbours start to gossip and drool
    He cries oh, girl you must be mad,
    What happened to the sweet love you and me had?
    Against the door he leans and starts a scene,
    And his tears fall and burn the garden green
  • Anna_falkAnna_falk Posts: 114
    Chewing juicy grass in my mouth
    I remember this taste
    eating eagerly
    wanting more and more
    the sun's first rays are looking up
    lifting the moist from the ground
    I'm walking slowly, eating...this is life
    it's a time to eat but i'm always on guard can never relax completely
    Always on allert listening, for hostile noises looking for enemies in the shadows
    Will remember this place, this good place
    To worry about tomorrow doesn't make it easier,
    it only makes today worse.
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