Monday, October 20, 2008

October Poetry Prompt 2 - Islands

I spent last weekend at the Poetry on the Lake Festival at Orta San Giulio in Italy, a place to fall in love with. Here's a shot of the Isla San Giulio in the middle of Lake Orta:



taken from the Piazza Motta:



where you can sit and eat and drink and people watch from the time you get up to the time you go to bed. Just my kind of place!

The island's a very short ferry ride away and the ferry captains take you around the tiny island before landing at the steps leading to the Basilica. There are currently seventy nuns living on the island which made me think how islands are often thought of as places of retreat. On the other hand, islands can also be places of abandonment.

What does the word 'island' mean to you? Brainstorm for associations, ideas and references and see what arises. The challenge is to write a poem that makes some kind of reference to an island, literally or metaphorically.

Good luck.

12 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

I really want to go to that poetry festival one day....

Anonymous said...

Bereavement

I am surrounded
by a sea of people –
all alone.

flybynight said...

Cyberlife

Invisible fingers
tap messages
as secret as
seashell whispers.

Flat screens spill out
their bluish light
on beds like islands
in the black of night.

Gordon Mason said...

Thanks for the island prompt!

Cold Calling

a light sheet of sleet
glazed my glasses
and when the heat

of the opening door
rose on the frame
it grasped my sight

and hid it under
a blanket shimmer
of islands of mist

Lynne Rees said...

Hello Gordon - nice to meet you, and thanks for posting. Just checked out your blog - congratulations on the collection.

Charlotte said...

If islands have a life
then I would be one too,
and watch the waves breathe
in and out, and crowd
the sunset with my view.

But as I am no island,
and I don't have a life,
I sent this poem to you
as poetry's the only thing
you make me want to do.

Lynne Rees said...

Hello, goingsolo, and welcome to AppleHouse. Thank you for posting your work - it touches a chord.

Anonymous said...

Revenge

She drove me to the edge
of our Island.

I threw pebbles
angrily at the sea.

That night rain thumped hard
against my window

Lynne Rees said...

Hi Martin - I like your new condensed approach. Saying a lot in a few words - great.

p.s. Did you send me your address for the 'prize' last month?

Anonymous said...

Lost

Reaching for her books
Ink fast fading from the words
Vast pages missing

Anonymous said...

I did Lynne,
via your email.
Thank you.

flybynight said...

Asylum

When I came to this island,
I couldn’t tell them what I’d seen

but their fluttering mouths
trying to say my name

sent me into a white sky,
untouchable.