in the street of the sky night walks scattering poems
e e cummings
like a drunk
looking for his keys
in a parking lot
pulling
pockets
over
the sleepers
the snorers
inhale
the …………scattered………….lines
catch
the back of their throats
and they’re dreaming
candles
conflagrations
mirrors and oceans
and death rattling the door
yelling shut-the-fuck-up.
Image: Civic building (now largely abandoned), Wollongong, NSW. A quadrille for imaginary garden with real toads inspired by the ee cummings’ poem The Hours Rise Up Putting Off Stars And It Is and also published on dverse Open Link Night where Grace is hosting.
Peter Frankis writes 
Love this, especially death yelling shut-the-fuck-up. Great imagery, so vivid and I’m still laughing.
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Thanks Victoria, glad you enjoyed.
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You have captured the spirit of the cummings poem so well. I like yours even better. Very cool.
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I love the way the stark form reflects the starkness of the scene, Peter, and the realistic brutality of ‘death rattling the door / yelling shut-the-fuck-up’. The middle section reminds me a little of Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood with the sleepers
‘…dreaming
candles
conflagrations
mirrors and oceans’.
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This is incredibly potent ❤ love the imagery in this poem especially; “and they’re dreaming
candles conflagrations mirrors and oceans and death rattling the door.” Thank you so much for writing to the prompt. 😊
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Oh that’s terrific Peter… !!!
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Thanks, glad you liked…
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You nailed it.
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Thanks.
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Oh I love this! I can hear death shouting that curse. Bravo!
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(exactly)
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Mr. cummings would certainly approve! A visual and a cerebral treat.
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Thanks Helen, glad you liked it…
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Nice last two lines with death getting into the action.
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the interrupted rhythm adds to the whole vision of this poem – which makes the flow of this verse a kind of relief – like entering dream sleep and leaving the reality behind
“and they’re dreaming
candles
conflagrations
mirrors and oceans”
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Liking the formatting of words and response to the prompt!
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Thanks Grace – cummings was such an innovator
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I love what you did in the center — with the spacing. Excellent piece.
“inhale
the …………scattered………….lines
catch
the back of their throats”
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Glad you liked it.
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I like the ending, Peter. Not really an end but the beginning of more troubles with the introduction of Death. I’ve not read much of cummings but it vibrates here with what I read. Poems, but I did read his “The Enormous Room” and liked that. I must read more poems.
..
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Thanks Jim – glad you liked it. I’ll look up the enormous room.
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it’s a beautiful piece, Peter. For me with all the motion, still the solitude of the night, and as someone else mentioned, the dreams, a wonderful visual compass.
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Thanks so much Steve, glad you liked.
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