Orientations Poem by Tendai Rinos Mwanaka

Orientations

Rating: 3.0


We are these cells, this soul, this being.
We are the choices of our own awakening.
We are light that pours through the generations.
Innocent little children dancing to the rain song,
For a season of green to atone for our wrongs.

We are a hunter caught in his own snares.
We are a tidal wave in a sea of broken dreams.
We are flickering whimsy, a breath's laughter.
The sacrificial dove, the hooting owl, the forlorn falcon
O, those surreptitious angels in their sweet anger!
Muttering of dreams lost, deep in our own silences.

We are haunts cries in the aftermaths of battle.
We are fine theatre made out of lost relics.
We are a spider's webs, a tender weave of time.
Over here the wind blows, over there a story is told!

We are dry leaves in this intricate whispering.
Augmenting to a morning of silent conversations.
We are this pen conversing to these sentences.
Lighting the threshold to that wordless portent
If we turn, what do we see, a river or a shiver?

Or had we bitten more dreams than we could chew,
And we are now waiting for someone who never comes?

Thursday, October 9, 2014
Topic(s) of this poem: awakening
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
i wrote this poem in late 2007 and was inspired by comments of the poetry book, Orientations by Odysseas Elytis, that i read in the Time Magazine in the 1990s at the time of his death. i felt i wanted to explore this topic, as well
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Mj Lemon 01 April 2015

If we turn, what do we see, a river or a shiver? Or had we bitten more dreams than we could chew, And we are now waiting for someone who never comes? ...These are such fabulous lines...true gems. The combination of the material and the spiritual, the hope and the reality...These elements combine to make a person...Terrific poetry!

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Kelly Kurt 01 April 2015

A very well written and thoughtful work of prose. Thank you for sharing it here, Tendai.

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Kay Staley 01 April 2015

I cant say that I understand what the author is trying to say, but I enjoyed this poem. It makes me think of how we should not be so judgmental to people because we are all a part of each other and should be able to identify with who they are. Beautiful language and vocabulary, and the poem looks nice typed out. Purposeful lack of rhyme scheme which takes away the chance of having a whimsical feeling, but overall a gentle read full of pondering.

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