Photo Credit: marys-view.blogspot.com
Yesterday, a quail on the fence behind our garden feeder
sang rococo, rococo—a warning. Oh hear, rococo.
Today, silk- milk down lay scattered on the grass.
Yesterday, I peered through blinds half-opened, drank clouds
and mist and drizzle-drought, waited for the spilling sky.
Today, cerulean blue canvas backdrops finches’ song, with
orange-bright wings of oriole and his muted mate.
Yesterday, I thought of death, the thought of yours nine years ago
without much warning.
Today, you visited my dream and when I tasted watermelon sweetness,
savored, while I can.
This is a poem in response to a prompt that I’m hosting Thursday over at dVerse Meeting the Bar. Anaphora is the poetic device in which the same word(s) are used at the beginning of each line or stanza. Hop on over and read more about it and bring a poem of your own. The doors open Thursday, 3:00 PM EDT.
Yesterday was my sister’s 9th anniversary of death.
Victoria C. Slotto, Author 
The repetition here is effective and helps with the sense of stream of consciousness. It’s lovely and more than a bit poignant.
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Victoria, thanks for visiting me. I’m glad I can be here to extend you a bit of love on this anniversary. It never gets easier… but now here she is, alive on the page, in your yesterdays and todays. So it is that she will be with you for many tomorrows as well. We live in in the stories told about us, said Saroyan… blessings to you, Amy
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Beautifully done and the double-pronged repeat works so naturally for the anaphora.
Victoria, I tried to write one, but couldn’t get it together. Still, I am grateful for being acquainted with the phenomenon. Amazing how often Shakespeare used it.
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lovely words…nice lines!
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This is indeed a fitting tribute to your sister’s memory…felt.
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:)I came back to thank you so much for introducing us all to “anaphoa’.
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Savouring the now, filtering the past.If we had no memory we would not have a past only a present.Baggage is mostly painful.
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🙂 A sweet poem. Time goes on – bringing joy and sorrow along the way.
I pray for your sister’s eternal rest.
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Such a subtle and emotional poem – just beautiful – K
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This is such a beautiful poem! C’est la vie!!! 🙂
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Today and yesterday pass by and our lives too
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The past can come back and ambush us when we least expect it.
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good one
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Oh, I’m liking this very different anaphora so much…it’s different from anything else I’ve read (even in examples, I think) but works wonderfully well and just wrings emotions out of one…very cool.
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Wonderful progression in this poem; very well done.
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i love your element of time here. yesterday being one day before or many days before. some moments like this one are timeless no matter how specific they seem.
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This is perfect and lovely. Love the connections between yesterday and today.
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Victoria,
Kindly delete # 24 as there is a repetition of my same posting of # 6. Thanks!
Hank
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thanks for sharing such personal moment… a beautiful write
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Wow… I especially like the ending here.
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Oh this is so beautiful and touches the heart deeply. Wonderfully done.
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Wow, I am not the only one with death on my mind today. When I read “rococo, rococo” I can’t help but think of the Arcade Fire song. Beautiful poem.
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The sorrow is palpable and beautifully rendered. The colors leap off the page and the entire piece calls us to be present, to savor life while we can.
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[…] submitted for Victoria‘s prompt at dVerse: Anaphora (but she’s not to […]
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Great today and yesterday contrasts, both visual and moving.
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So tight and beautiful. The beginning and end really bracket the poem well. Great form, Victoria!
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Beautifully crafted!
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eloquent and vivid, Victoria ~ M
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I like the contrast of yesterday and today ~ The ending verse is bittersweet as watermelon ~ Thank you for sharing another tool with us ~
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The remains of a fight for ones life is a startling beginning to this poem that dips into sorrow and lifts into savoring. The Yesterday and Today really work as do the variously colored birds on either side of time and presence. The curling together is so rococo! Lovely. I haven’t written my anaphoric poem yet.
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Not only great repetition but also great juxtaposition, and that last sentence how a visit in the dream can change a day to positive. I love this.
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A beautiful kind of recovery glimpsed here – your distillation is just wonderful and the repetition works like the warning. Just lovely – sad, but a good kind of sad in that it also imparts a kind of wisdom of what life is. Thanks. k.
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oh this is beautiful victoria – the anaphora is subtle and build in well..i found it very difficult – gave it several tries and most of mine sounded like a parrot … the one if posted is very subtle now, probably too subtle… maybe i can give it another try…but def. like yours much…the watermelon sweetness…love how you add taste with this..
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Our today’s was yesterday’s but tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow is there as a cause to make amends, to plan and to remember the loved ones. No wonder there’s no tomorrow! Nice thoughts Victoria!
Hank
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smiles…your close is endearing…the watermelon sweetness…the rememberance of one…our todays become our yesterdays…and tomorrow will be a shade different as well…smiles…very nicely done…got mine written and will have it up in the morning…i like how you did the alternating echoes….hmm….wish i’d of thought of that…smiles
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Our todays so quickly turn into our yesterdays, don’t they? It is good when todays blend with yesterday, and someone visits your dream….and you savor it (and the memories). Enjoyed this poem, Victoria.
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