Born in cragged Cornwall
cold, where linden, windswept,
enwreathed home on heath-blooms:
heart-song isle of longing.
Traveled o’er sea tipped white
to lands where pine stands, so
bore she north her birthright:
Brithonic grace, myth-queen.
A dróttkvætt for the April poetry slam at Yeah Write.
by Jenifer Cartland
"5 minute walks"
by Jen Maidenberg
Where your words matter.
Poems | England | Staffordshire | East Anglia | Northern Ireland | The Needwood Poems.
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You had me at Cornwall–but the visual-aural beauty of the first stanza is incredible. I do like “myth-queen,” and not just because of the hyphen. 😉
Aw, thank you so much for the very positive comments (earlier and here), and for your hyphenated advice 🙂 What a challenge this was!
Love the pictures your words painted in my mind. I can visualize cragged Cornwall. I can feel the ocean spray, the excitement at the site of the new world, and smell the pines. This was really extraordinary. ♥
Thank you so much Kathy, both for your enthusiastic reading but also for completely getting it. That is very rewarding after the difficult writing process this was.
haha! “Obscure poetry forms,” indeed. The image in my head of the lindens bending to wreath the house will stick with me.
Glad you appreciated that tag!! And also that line, which, when I had finished it, convinced me to keep going (rather than giving up again). Thanks for your advice, too 🙂
Beautiful! Yours mostly uses softer consonants than some of the other entries, which fits with the gentler subject matter. “enwreathed home on heath-blooms” and “bore she north her birthright” are my favorites.
Hm that’s interesting, Ruby, I hadn’t noticed that. Thanks for reading so closely – and I’m very happy to hear you liked those two lines. When you spend so long working every word you get quite attached them all 🙂
“heart-song isle of longing.” Oh, I liked this line. I really want to go and see that island now.
Do you know, that line came to me fully formed! Every other line was such an uphill battle (well, you know what I mean) that I was sure I’d somehow not followed a rule with that one. So glad you liked it!