This bop was written for Read Write Poem Prompt #67: Share the Bop. A bop is a (roughly) 26 line poem with three stanzas and a refrain that repeats three times in the poem. The bop is usually structured like this (however, you can modify or expand on the form):
- Stanza 1: six lines, introduces a problem or situation
- Refrain
- Stanza 2: eight lines, expands more on the problem or situation, or continues from stanza 1
- Refrain
- Stanza 3: six lines, with the solution or conclusion
- Refrain
I had fun with this and plan to write many more bops. For the RWP prompt for this week, we were to either a) borrow two lines posted by participants as a refrain or b) write our own bop and use one of the donated couplets as an epigraph. My refrain (I want to fix you/I want to set your wings) is courtesy of Angie from The Space Between Words blog.
Now, enjoy the poem.
-Nicole
———————————————-
Caught between you two,
I was a ladybug –
spread my wings, and I flew;
spread my wings for the two of you;
spread my wings, and I knew
your love. Now, I hear your voices:
“I want to fix you;
I want to set your wings”;
for the land died, sinking beneath watery surfaces
to rest in an ocean floor grave. So I shed my wings,
shed my body, and gave up my ghost –
tried to fly away home;
but how do you fly away home
when home is now under the sea, too many
leagues to count on just two ladybug wings?
And I still hear you:
“I want to fix you;
I want to set your wings.”
Names forgotten, bodies exchanged: yet our souls remain the same.
I call for you both and hear your echoes return to me.
I swallow your voices, eat your words, let their
drops of gold swim alongside blood cells through my veins.
Your gold flows to my tendons, reconnects tissue,
fixes my wings.
Now, I want to fix you.
I want to set your wings.
Written 2/23/09
&;copy 2009 Nicole Nicholson except words in italics, which were graciously donated by RWP’er Angie. All Rights Reserved on original material by N. Nicholson.
This is an excellent poem. I love the picture above as well. And while I am at it, I may as well tell you I like the format of your blog as well — very cool colors.
Oh, this is a wonderful piece!
Thank you for using my lines and giving them such a beautiful place to “fly!”
Bops are great fun to write, aren’t they? This surprised me in the second stanza, a nice surprise, as it moved from earth to ocean, and with it a bit of mourning, sweetly.
There’s a nice mixture of sorrow and hope here that comes off really well.
Love the progression and the transformation employed here!