bird nest

im having another crisis & wrote a poem about it

i live up in a clementine tree
nestled between the firm branches to keep me steady
the leaves blanketing me in their thick velvet
nothing can reach me from up here.

i do not eat the clementines

for the golden fruit is too high.
i stare up at it, every day,
as i live my life within the branches and leaves and a bird's nest.

fruit so perfectly made to be eaten,
juicy segments of amber just for me.

the fruit grows heavy on the thin branches
way up high,
and as the summer glow dies down,
the rot begins.
the fruit falls to the grass.

i do not eat the clementines.

Reviews

[Vol]

c4ssiopeia,
I always pronounced it Cassi-OH-pia, I met a guy who was a Navy navigator who called it Cassi-O-PEE-a and looked at me as though I was from the sticks. I AM, but that's was irrelevant at the time. I got published in a local literary magazine in Nashville called Cassiopia pronounced my way.
But that's not why I stopped by.. you said you were trying to get good at poetry..., and take it from a guy who's been reading that stuff for over sixty years and studied for at least fifty... did my first public reading in 1968...You are wrong. You are a really outstanding wordsmith! This poem is stunning in its metaphor... nothing can reach me, and I can't reach anything... the wonderful "sour grapes" the plot and sub-plot. No... you have a powerful insight into how to describe "a" thing without describing "the " thing, so your reader gets to find what it is for themselves! I personally relate because I have loved being held by the arms of trees, been the best friend of others, and as a wood sculptor, I have loved them for their beauty. Most of all you have built a nicely intricate framework to hang our imaginations on... we all have the thing we envy,covet even that is out of reach... I could write a series of essays on all those things hanging just out there...
I'm glad you are here and look forward to reading more of your work!
Vol

[c4ssiopeia]

Thank you so much! You're too kind, haha. This poem was just a heat of the moment first draft :-) The community on here seems to always be so supportive, I love it

And in my head I pronounce it Cassi-oh-PEY-a, because my friend who came up with it is Spanish :P

[c4ssiopeia]

Thank you so much! You're too kind, haha. This poem was just a heat of the moment first draft :-) The community on here seems to always be so supportive, I love it

And in my head I pronounce it Cassi-oh-PEY-a, because my friend who came up with it is Spanish :P

[Vol]

C4ssiopia,
I'm rarely kind... unless not saying anything would be considered that way. I DO tend to be effusive when I find especially good stuff... Good stuff consists of a poet's innate relationship with words, a strong voice, fresh insight, fresh imagery, some humor and subjects with universal appeal. I'm sure there are other things, but these at least. YOU exhibit all those traits. I don't know if you've read my thumbnail, but I'm 76 years old and poetry is my life out here in my little ghost town of Gouge Eye, Texas, pop. maybe 12. NIce to meetcha!
Vol