Detouring Writers Roadblock

Here are the links to previous contributions by Jasmin, Camille and Jenny

So far, the participants for our current exercise are: Jasmin, Kimmie, Jenny, and myself. We hope others will join in as well! Again, it does not have to be a poem or follow any type of formal guidelines. Just imagine an elephant or look at the photos and write whatever comes to mind depending upon your mood. It’s freestyle, it’s fun, and it’s delightfully diverse!



Come close.
A little closer,
There.

Hi.
What do you see?
Old.
Grand.
Magnificent.

Look up at me now.
Sometimes I look happy…
Sometimes I look sad.
There are crinkles and wrinkles on my face.

Are these the remnants of laughter?
Or is it my heartbreaking nostalgia?

I guess you’ll never know.
You see my tusks, as something desirable.
You hear my trumpet, loud and proud.
You are in awe of my magnificence.

Yet some of you lock me up.
You force me,
A grand old thing,
To bend down to your plea.

I am not a ride,
Nor am I a show.

I am merely me,
An elephant,
Forevermore.

Jas
March 22, 2011



Quiet, calm, serene and valiant disposition.
My snout and ears only a conception.
Broad hips, formal stride
Are attributes of my perfection.

My tusks weigh in at about $1.1
Yet I persevere and am only one.
One of me makes up more than ten thousand men
In India, I’m loved and began again.

Thou has chaste me like none before
Why will I suffer for your gain?
Yes, you cut me and bleed me
But know this, I suffer no more.

Ivory, yes Ivory they scream
Surely they don’t mean me, I thought.
Laying instead of standing is foreign to me
Why now must I lie down and scream.

Though my shouts never make sense
Those who are human often don’t
Cold ground and vultures holding me down
These tusks must be worth two cents.

Kimmie
April 27, 2011



You sent me a picture of an elephant
Or was it three?
They all look the same, big, grey, wrinkled.

Immobile, at least that's how I see them
But do we dare them to run?
And trample, we're so small.

Wrinkled not quite majestic
Its the ivory catching the sun's fading rays
Strong enough to wait it out, patience is thy name.

Steady eye declares I remember
I'll never forget, its not in my nature
My gift to hold on while letting go.

On its advice I stretch and crane
To look beyond
Seeking what I still don't know.

Ah it seems I won't recall
When it stares back in my face
A puff of dust from the beast's back, blurred memory never erased.

Specks born of Kenya burning in my eyes
I want to rub them out
But a shake of giant ears signals tears flow better in their wake.

The elephant turns
Yet does not change, only the smell reaches me now
Issuing demands of me, to remember, to forget.

There remains no elephant in my room
Even though I knocked down the walls
Trumpet sensations drift in instead, I think I know that sound.

Sad songs I play over and over
Reading lyrics to them I swore I wrote
Or maybe they just touch me softly like that elephant, I just don't know.

Jenny
April 28, 2011



TUSK

Everyone perceives
I’m strong as an ox
And perhaps
At one time I was
Simply because
I had to be
So I used
Various tricks
Of the trade
To get by
For as long
As I could
But somewhere
Along the way
I lost my grip
And the stance
Around my heart
Began to crumble
And my skin
Was not as thick
As an elephants
Anymore
I was fragile
As glass blown
Paper thin
I relented
And let you in
Even let you
Fondle my ivory
Never knowing
Your true agenda
Until I felt
The full wrath
Of a brute
As your javelin
Speared my soul
Beyond repair
And my tusks
Were ripped out
By the roots
Now all I do
Is sit and stare
In abject disbelief
With nothing
To protect me now

-Camille Cheek
Potpourri of Emotions, Vol II
22 June 2001