En Route to Toronto
©April 20th, 2016
By Vijaya Sundaram
She flies along, skimming surfaces
With eel-ease, flowing through air
Purring now, growling at times,
This Traveler, swift as a swallow,
Carrying travelers, still as stone.
Companionable and old she is, but proud,
Unwilling to give up the ghost,
Nursed along by stubbornness.
The star-cradle bends low
As we fly horizon-wards
In a sunless space pierced by eyes
Streaming light –unblinking, lidless.
We converse about times past and present,
Of medieval castles and modern dwellings in cities and towns
Where the great Hum of humanity
Makes a song too passing strange to comprehend.
And we make the great Mother keen
While we ride her scarred body,
Criss-crossing her veins.
Our innocent Traveller – she, who
Drinks the ancient blood
Of dead Titans struck down in their prime
Along with the rest of her ilk –
Hums along absently, as she
Brings the slow, ineluctable
Collapse of all we know.
… Still, we like driving to Toronto.
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(I wrote this IN the car, on the way to Toronto — wrote it on my phone, at 11:31 p.m. Please forgive any lapse of language or imagination!)
In response to the NaPoWriMo prompt for Day 20:
And finally, our prompt (optional, as always)! Today’s prompt comes to us from Vince Gotera, who suggests a prompt very much in keeping with our poet in translation, a “kenning” poem. Kennings were riddle-like metaphors used in the Norse sagas. Basically, they are ways of calling something not by its actual name, but by a sort of clever, off-kilter description — for example, the sea would be called the “whale road.” Today, I challenge you to think of a single thing or person (a house, your grandmother, etc), and then write a poem that consists of kenning-like descriptions of that thing or person. For example, you might call a cat a mouse-stalker, quiet-walker, bird-warner, purr-former, etc. If you’re looking for examples, you can find one that Vince wrote here and a different example here. Happy writing!