Is it lunacy — this slow decay of night?
As nightshade whispers and how moths
commit its suicide when flying close to light…
A laughter fills my abdomen with rot
and moon spill silver on restraining belts.
It’s claws. It’s jaws as shadows hunt on sky.
Is it lunacy — this night when reasons melt?
As nightshade whispers how it’s time to die.
Bella Donna © by Georgia O’Keeffe
—
February 18, 2017
Love this – the rays of the moon can prove to be distressful as you so wisely state..
I think that having a fever would be just like that.
Ooh, yummy what you squished in the mid-section:
“A laughter fills my abdomen with rot
and moon spill silver on restraining belts.
It’s claws. It’s jaws as shadows hunt on sky.”
The thought of a belly bursting with rotting laughter leaves an image in the head… that keeps on giving.
I like that you brought in the lunacy and the darker side of things.
the night when reasons melt… and the nightshade begins to whisper! Scary!
Lovely rhyming, internal included.
This is one of your poems I would like to hear read aloud. There are some wonderful sound qualities which add o the mystery of the belladonna.
A dark write with marvellous cadence…love it!
As I read this, Björn, I pictured an inmate of one of those nightmare lunatic asylums from the past, especially the lines:
‘A laughter fills my abdomen with rot
and moon spill silver on restraining belts’..
Very dark and chilling.
deathly halo of the moon…wow…
Such a delightfully dark vision of the night. Really enjoyed this chilling capture.
Wow, I love the imagery and the way the poem feels like it teeters on madness. Wonderful play on moon as the root word in lunacy.
I see the lunacy of love here too – throwing caution to the wind the way the moth does
Eerie … I did not recognize this as yours!
Yikes, watch out for that glorious nightshade…
I really like the internal rhyming in this poem. So well penned.
Bjorn, I really like this piece.
An interesting moon poem Björn. The lunacy aspect of moon’s influence is classic, dark and discomforting
Much love…
OOoooo. I’ll be leaving the lights on tonight to keep the dark thoughts at bay! This is dark and spellbinding.
Such a dark and haunting and beautiful poem.
Oh yes, I do think it is lunacy! And it has claws that one has to fight against! A haunting poem, Bjorn.
A beautiful poem and beautiful painting you have chosen!
I love moonlit nights. Yet, your poem focuses on the shades. Love this. But made me think of the state of the world now, especially my country. Maybe, I’m too much into politics. Still… love what you’ve written.
Humans don’t accept death all that willingly trying to find reasons for life’s lunacy and trying to fight inevitibility. The Nightshade appears to have a lot of sense.
Well, IS it lunacy? 😉
A very spooky poem, Bjorn, and love the second sense of bella donna. k.
The slow decay of night … soft music, I find, does seem to help drown out the lunacy, a bit. But oh, those claws and jaws.
Take heed, the moth like suicide pilots carry as message.
..
ooh! This is eerie. I love the jaws as shadows hunting sky. Haunting poem.
More than a mood piece, this is full of dazzling, knife-sharp images–a very effective and terrifying moon mirror which you hold up for us to look into–and like the fairytale stepmother asking who is fairest, we may not like what it tells us. Moons and mirroes are treacherous things.
This piece is beautiful and evocative of death and its intrinsic pull. I’d make one recommendation for grammar purposes. You have a strained subject-verb agreement. This sentence would be smoother:
“As nightshade whispers and how moths
commit suicide when flying close to light”
Moths is a plural word and its is singular. If you omit ‘its’ altogether, it works. If you like using a personal pronoun–moths would need ‘their suicide’ but it isn’t as graceful as omitting it.
Hope you don’t mind me butting in. I re-read your work and realized you also used “It’s claws, It’s jaws.” It’s is a contraction of two words: it and is. Maybe you mean that. But, if you want the possessive form, use “Its claws, its jaws.” This is a really common error, even native speakers make.
I only mention this because I liked the piece very much. I imagine you write to perfect your art, like most writers do.
Thank you, and I don’t mind at all…
But the rhythm of the piece would be a bit strange for me if I changed it so… but if I write:
As nightshade whispers and how moths
commit their suicide when flying close to light…
Really want to keep the iambs intact here… as for the second comment I actually meant it’s, referring to the lunacy as it…