Weekly Word Prompt:  Subliminal  click to view all the responses to this weeks word prompts 

For the weekly word prompt “Subliminal” I’m reposting this old poem of mine “A Single Atom”, which I originally created from a very mixed up and vague dream I had when I was experiencing a lot of guilt complexes about a new relationship I was having at the time, only a year after my wifes passing. My subconscious was subtly  injecting doubts into my mind during my sleep !!

A Single Atom

I see a shooting star, traverse the full-moon

Like a jungle bushfire, raging out of sight

I feel the heat of midday, smothering the night

Like a warm body, inside her tomb

I see the dawn, without the golden sun

Like a Lyrebird, singing all out of tune

I hear the morning rain, without a cloud in the sky

Like yesterdays floods, leaving her high and dry

I see a sandy beach, awash by a tidal wave

Like a burning desert, water is her grave

I fill lonely sheets, with empty dreams

Like a dark chasms’ irrelevant beams

I see a summer leaf, wilted by a frosty Autumn

Like an unwatered orchid, opening to an old anthem

I feel like a splintered heart, inside a single atom

Like a snakes dead skin, her rejected emblem

Ivor Steven. (c)  2018

From before the start

You ripped out my heart

And splintered my bones

With your sharpest stones

You laugh and mock

I’m pieces of crushed rock

Waiting at every station

You left me in slow motion

With beach-sand in my pocket

I’m holding an empty locket

Cast adrift in the ocean

I’m free of your grindstone potion

Ivor Steven (c)  2018

Featured Image:  Bing.  whyou.deviantart.com

This is my first attempt at writing a Villanelle style of poem. As a beginner, I took the easy way out and restructured one of my old poems, and actually I’ve wanted to revise this old classic of mine, the poem was originally called “This Lost Shadow”, and dear Shefali of  writtenframes  ,inspired/prompted me to try to write one. I’m not sure if I’ve got the Villanelle style technically ok, so please, I’m open to any suggestions and corrections to my effort here.

I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree

Why am I so sleepy, am I ageing too quickly

I’m writing that book for a soul gone cold

I’m so physically worn and mentally at sea

Why am I so anxious and lonely

I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree

I’m writing a song about my return to the fold

Why am I so sore, have I lost my plea

I’m writing that book for a soul gone cold

I’m a furnace log, burning up with glee

I’m a sinking ship, all about to flee

I’m writing this song about a single weeping tree

I’m an overburdened camel, not to be told

I’m an empty desert, a void, far as the eye can see

I’m writing that book for a soul gone cold

I’m a broken branch, withering and dying, oh so slowly

I’m this lost shadow, wandering this barren land furtively

I’m singing this song about a single weeping tree

I’m writing that book for a soul gone cold

Ivor Steven (c)  2018

Thank you to dear Shefali for her wonderful encouragement and invaluable assistance, and if you would like to have a try at a Villanelle here’s a very good “How To” link,              A link to help you : https://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Villanelle