It’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, bringing to life all those bulbs that have loitered through the cold and dark of our winter. Most iconic are the daffodils – or to be be generically precise, Narcissi. Which calls to mind the myth of that handsome youth by a stream so caught up by his own reflection that he cannot relate to all those mesmerised by his beauty. Delmore Schwartz’s “Narcissus” poem paints a more sympathetic picture though:

“…did they suppose
Self-love was unrequited, or betrayed?
They thought I had fallen in love with my own face,
And this belief became the night-like obstacle
To understanding all my unbroken suffering,
My studious self-regard, the pain of hope,
The torment of possibility:
How then could I have expected them to see me
As I saw myself, within my gaze, or see
That being thus seemed as a toad, a frog, a wren, a mole.
Knowing their certainty that I was only
A monument, a monster who had fallen in love
With himself alone, how could I have
Told them what was in me, within my heart, trembling and passionate
…Do you hear, do you see? Do you understand me now, and how
The words for what is my heart do not exist…?

The nymph, Echo was just one of his admirers but, having already been cursed to only reiterate the last of another’s speech, is doubly cursed with unrequited love and the powerlessness of self expression. The myth is beautifully rendered in this translation of Pura López-Colomé’s “Echo”

“…I’m caught in the bubble
of your breath.
It locks me in.
Drives me mad.

Confined to speak alone,
I talk and listen,
ask questions and answer myself.
I hum, I think I sing,
I breathe in, breathe in and don’t explode.
I’m no one…”

And here we have the pair monologuing together in this repeat echoing poem by Fred Chappell:-

And so for today’s Meeting the Bar prompt we are writing a poem that includes questions, answers and repeat lines (refrains).

Poetry Prompt: Include AT LEAST ONE of these in your poem, from Pablo Neruda’s ‘Book of Questions’. [suggestion – regard these as rhetorical, i.e. self-reflective]. I like to use as an opening epigraph with nod to the author of course

• Why was I not born mysterious?
• Why did I grow up without companions?
• Do unshed tears wait in little lakes?
• How long do others speak if we have already spoken?
• Why does Spring once again offer its green clothes?
• Isn’t it better never than late?

Poetry Style:
• Write your poem as a Ghazal*
• 5 -15 rhyming couplets
• AA, BA, CA, DA, EA, etc
OR
• As free verse, with each line ending in a separate echoing word, as in Chappell’s poem above
[suggestion – you could write it as two columns or with caesura]

Poetry Theme:
any of your choosing though you may want to focus on Spring or the Narcissus/Echo myth or any such love story, since Ghazal’s traditionally deal with loss and romantic love.

Information Links:
*All about the Ghazal
*Examples of Ghazal poems
The Ghazal is one we have met several times here on dVerse ( just search it) including a good explanation of origins with examples HERE

So once you have posted your poem according to the guidelines above, do add it to Mr Linky below then go visiting and reading other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.

[N.B. Mr Linky closes Saturday 3 p.m. EST]