The gathering at the oak tree gazes up to watch
light breaking through the leaves in lucent blonde fingers;
hallelujah
through the gathering of leaves — the oak’s green sleeves:
a blind wooden eye turns, and the gifts slip through her fingers;
hallelujah
as colors race through the membrane sky –
the rainbow siblings salute us through azure as one;
hallelujah
past the rain, shed to call colors up from
the earthen membrane beneath us, where we stand as one
hallelujah,
and we send back the song as electric impulses,
voices carried through limbs and hearts alone;
hallelujah
is our voices escaping only in breaths and upraised limbs as
we each stand before You alone;
hallelujah
Written 11/29/11
© 2011 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
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This week’s poem was inspired by two things: 1) “Hallelujah” by R.E.M., which appears on their latest release, “Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, and Part Garbage” and 2) the We Write Poems Prompt this week which suggested that we look at words in pairs and the relationships between words. The picture is courtesy of Rampaging Poet from Deviant Art.
Process Notes: I basically took the words in the order that they appeared and considered each two to be a pair (gathering/oak, color/membrane, and voice/limb). Once I did this, the images and the story began to emerge. Also, I’ve been listening to “Hallelujah” lately…it’s an absolutely gorgeous and inspiring track and it just makes me even sadder that they broke up…but at the same time it seems like the perfect song for an ending. The spiritual nature of the lyrics inspired me…I wanted to write a companion/answer that would do it justice.
-Nicole
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Ahh, a juxtaposition of human mythology projected upon the inanimate structure of nature. You have dialed in to one of existence’s great conundrums: is nature spiritual and if not why do we humans feel spiritually lifted when exposed to it? Natura, artis magistra. Good work, I loved the rhythm.
Regards,
Donald
A spiritual use of the words which is very appealing.
Nicole, a true tribute to mother nature. I love the imagery in this, beautifully done.
Pamela
hard to not love nature and all the beauty….nicely done Nicole
Beautiful. Read like a prayer or a song, which as I read further, it was indeed inspired by. Now I’ll have to go listen to it. I haven’t heard REM’s latest, but I love their work.
A lovely praise to nature and God. I can hear the echoes of the song.
Thank you everyone for your compliments.
“Hallelujah” itself almost sounded like a prayer to me, and the words gave birth to the images here in the poem. Hearing the song is kind of bittersweet to me…but I wanted to write something that reflected more of the joy than the sadness.
Thank you for visiting.
-Nicole