I.
Boulders side by side
a brotherhood
when river-water finds
a frothy way around –
side by side a shelter to provide
salmon spawning space.
II.
Communicating brotherhood
with words like well-oiled sprockets
till her eyelashed glance
can act like sand.
III.
Fists of brotherhood
are the barbed wire ‘round the pasture
of a raging billy-goat.
IV
Dandelion weeds
like lies of brotherhood
when blaming someone else.
V.
The withered branch
is the broken mortar
of a lonely brother’s grave.
The Allen Brothers by Henry Raeburn
Today we have a guest blogger at dVerse poetics who inspires us to write about brothers and brotherhood. I have never had a brother, or felt attracted to the boisterousness of brotherhood, so I probably see it from the outside a lot.
—
April 14, 2015
Björn Rudbergs writings 
Unexpected and thought- provoking take on th eprompt, Björn. I like the imagery in the first and last stanzas, and how you started with life and ended with death, thus making us see the whole as an expression of the cycle of life.
Your fourth stanza really resonated. We have three boys, and we’ve been dealing a lot with one blaming another. By the way, you seem to have a typo in the title.
Indeed I have.. and that’s corrected now 🙂
I love how this progressed from stanza to stanza, giving multiple pictures, but also one big , improtant message at the end.
Enjoyed reading it.
I was tempted to write like Wallace Steven’s style, smiles ~ I admire the brotherhood theme specially 4th and 5th stanzas ~ The use of the metaphor is sharp & piercing ~
I enjoyed the different ways you looked at brotherhood. Mostly the dark side, it seems. Each metaphoric stanza stands alone. The last stanza, expressing death, stills me.
Bjorn, I like the list of stanzas to communicate the different textures of brotherhood – liked the barbed wire stanza very much.
Your creativity knows no boundaries it seems, brother. 5 strong stanzas, both stand alone & still holding together the theme. The fifth stanza seemed strongest to me, finishing with a gut jab. Your change of voice, or style, or form these days, from poem to poem is striking; sometimes I feel that my voice poetically, honed fro m 60 years of writing has become too ME; but hey, it is what it is.
I think these are exceptional, Bjorn. Skillful use of metaphor here–each one a fine glimpse into several facets of brotherhood.
I can see you’ve been thinking about metaphors, Bjorn – excellent, very visual and rock-like solid metaphors here. Each facet of brotherhood very succinctly described.
i feel like you put a lifetime in a few lines… strong opening
the ending stanza is very powerful and sad… a different outlook on brotherhood this write has. I dig it
I loved all the parts but really the last one was too powerful to leave me speechless.
Your mind has such creative thoughts. I like these, especially the first and last, but they’re all wonderful.
Each stanza a unique poem. The last stanza left me sitting, stunned and I had to read it again. Excellent poem.
definitely an interesting collection on brotherhood. i can’t quite put my finger on it, but I feel like in (re)reading the verses they solidify a bit more…not really sure that makes sense…
the contrast of the first stanza, with uncountable births and the last stanza with a lonely death is stunning and rich with imagery..
Always such a high standard of wordsmithery on your blog, that awakens the corresponding philosophy in the reader. Very well done
I liked how each verse was a block of the fortress that brotherhood can be.
Your view from the outside definitely articulates views from the inside of brotherhood. Having a brother as well as two sons I have experienced the protectiveness and bond that you describe so beautifully in your metaphors.
Great examples, Bjorn. Well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
“Dandelion weeds like lies of brotherhood when blaming someone else” – so evocative. It stirred a vision in my mind of dandelion puff balls carrying the seeds of rumor, interpretation, perspective, history, lies and so on and so on – all those irrational, emotional, idiosyncrasies and traits that infuse all human relationships as randomly and capriciously as dandelion weeds.