Saturday, July 9, 2011

A Dickens Duet


A Tale with a Twist

A movie set, perhaps,
of alleyways; the balconies
touch in close conversation.
Fagin is about, somewhere.
The lights are right,
the camera rolls
when the child appears
in all his green innocence.
His name might be Oliver.



Great Expectations

Pip peers silently
into the dining room
and of course the first thing
he sees is that moldy,
moldering wedding cake,
crumbling in abandonment,
accented with green mold
instead of leafed frosting
to accompany frosted roses.
Miss Havisham wanders
dressed in faded stains,
dreaming of empire.

Both poems are submitted for One Shot Sunday hosted by One Stop Poetry. To see other submitted poems and an interview with photographer Neil Alexander, please visit the site.

Photographs by Neil Alexander. Used with permission or One Stop Poetry.

17 comments:

dustus said...

"instead of leafed frosting
to accompany frosted roses."

What a context you set up for viewing "icing on the cake." I'm a Dickens fan. The way you weave the references creates a Tale of Two Prompt Responses of your own. Wonderful creativity, Glynn.

Anonymous said...

Dickens is an interesting inroad here to these exotic poems, the British dream of Empire rotted from beneath on the streets of impoverished London lamed and drunken soldiers wonder just who reaped the glory of conquest. The laugh is pure Bollywood, the Buddha's anti-centric whirl ...- Brendan

Unknown said...

loved it and how very clever ....thank you for sharing

Brian Miller said...

wow, both of these are very good...love the allusions in the second one though...great stuff glynn...

ayala said...

I love this, Glynn.

Jinksy said...

Unexpected mix of words and pictures make the mind do a double take...

Louise Gallagher said...

A plot of inter-woven Dickens...

great duet of responses!

Claudia said...

Miss Havisham wanders
dressed in faded stains,
dreaming of empire.... loved this and enjoyed the oliver twist twist as well...both very good poems glynn

Anonymous said...

wonderful word weaving

Megan Willome said...

Love your "Tale with a Twist" poem. Today my daughter finishes her 11th and final performance of "Oliver!" She liked your poem, too.

Anonymous said...

Ah, a double dose of classical pleasure! Fantastic Glynn - the throw-back to Dickens set my childhood readings to swelling in my heart, in addition to the beauty of these poems in their own rights. Great work with the references, clever delivery, strong voice and language...several have described this as "weaving", and it certainly lends the correct, delicate character to what you've done...splendid.

Maude Lynn said...

Well done!

hedgewitch said...

A great weaving of Dickens and the outward order his day imposed on the Empire, contrasted with the disorder and even madness underneath--definitely echoed in the ambience of both pictures and poems.

Maureen said...

An unexpected response, well-done.

S. Etole said...

I like your duet ...

Reflections said...

Great writing Glynn... the first photo spurred thoughts of Oliver for me too... Wonderful Tale of Two

gautami tripathy said...

Loved it...


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