Imagining Animals

FinsburyParkCarrots

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.

ISN

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

ISN

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

PJfaninmaine

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

heave

:):):):):)

EvilToasterElf

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 FrEAk

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

Spot In The Sky

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.

Kwyjibo

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

Ali

I taste dead flesh.
(That's all I have right now..I just ate.)
Sincerely,
ali

Kwyjibo

bizump

I like this thread, and I want to be able to find it later

Ms. Haiku

with fresh gathered acorns
along the branches
who is the poet?

FinsburyParkCarrots

Bumping this one. Any takers?

FinsburyParkCarrots

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.

EvilToasterElf

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.

olderman

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.

Anna_falk

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