Poem: "Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined"
Here is the linkback perk for the March 4, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. If you link to the fishbowl, make a comment and include the URL to reveal a verse of this poem. If you link on different services, you can get multiple verses.
This poem is spillover from the February 4, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Sylvaine, aldersprig, the_vulture, and rix_scaedu. It also fills the "Magical / Soul bond" square in my 2-1-14 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest.
All 18 verses have been posted. Linkers include: siliconshaman, janetmiles, rix_scaedu, siege, technoshaman, DW user Jjhunter.
"Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined"
There was nothing of coercion
in what lay between
Scott and the incubus,
yet there was still a force
that connected their souls.
It was a paradox,
and it puzzled them both --
something had broken
the old service bond
that the incubus once bore,
and now drew him and Scott
closer together every day.
There was nothing, really,
that made Scott offer
the use of his futon
and neglect to take it back,
only a sense that he wanted
the incubus to have somewhere to go.
There was nothing, really,
that made the incubus stay there,
curled like a round red brick
on the creamy sheets,
only a sense that it felt right
to be in this place, this time.
Scott was an architect,
and so that was how
he imagined their link.
It was like an arch, a bridge,
a flying buttress -- something
that soared between them
and made them stronger.
It was what made Scott
ask about Hell and listen
to the slow unfolding confession.
It was what made the incubus
ask about architecture and ideas,
spooling out inspiration
as he once spooled threads of lust.
Then, too, it was in Scott's gentle reply
when the incubus asked when
the sexlessness would wear off,
explaining that no, it wasn't just a phase,
it had always been so for him
and might now be so for the incubus.
They were strangers,
they were different species,
and yet they were in harmony.
They never expected to fall in love --
and it was nothing so sudden
as falling from grace --
but it happened anyway,
falling like water, cool and lucid.
It was hard for the incubus
to conceive of love without sexual desire,
although he understood lust without love
quite readily from past experience.
When the Fledging came,
they both sprouted the wings
of Baltimore orioles,
black and brick-orange
and beautiful.
It was Scott who found
the old William Blake quote --
Love to faults is always blind,
always is to joy inclined.
Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
and breaks all chains from every mind. --
suggesting that it might explain
how the incubus came to be
uncoupled from Hell and
wrapped up with himself instead.
The incubus nodded,
and said that made sense.
The two of them went on
as they had been, slowly
making a life together,
building foundations brick by brick,
weaving ideas like blades of grass.
* * *
Notes:
"Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind."
Love to faults is always blind;
Always is to joy inclin’d,
Lawless, wing’d and unconfin’d,
And breaks all chains from every mind.
Deceit to secrecy confin’d,
Lawful, cautious and refin’d;
To anything but interest blind,
And forges fetters for the mind.
Blake: Gnomic Verses VII in The Poetical Works of William Blake, ed. John Sampson. Oxford Univ. Press, 1918, p. 194. (Thanks to thnidu for tracking down the correct citation. mdlbear says it's in William Blake: "Poems From Blake's Notebooks." The site where I first found the quote incorrectly attributed it to William Shakespeare.)
Fallingwater is a famous house.
http://www.fallingwater.org/assets/Fallingwater_Architecture.pdf
Baltimore orioles are skilled architects, weaving a nest that hangs under a branch.
This poem is spillover from the February 4, 2014 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Sylvaine, aldersprig, the_vulture, and rix_scaedu. It also fills the "Magical / Soul bond" square in my 2-1-14 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest.
All 18 verses have been posted. Linkers include: siliconshaman, janetmiles, rix_scaedu, siege, technoshaman, DW user Jjhunter.
"Lawless, Winged, and Unconfined"
There was nothing of coercion
in what lay between
Scott and the incubus,
yet there was still a force
that connected their souls.
It was a paradox,
and it puzzled them both --
something had broken
the old service bond
that the incubus once bore,
and now drew him and Scott
closer together every day.
There was nothing, really,
that made Scott offer
the use of his futon
and neglect to take it back,
only a sense that he wanted
the incubus to have somewhere to go.
There was nothing, really,
that made the incubus stay there,
curled like a round red brick
on the creamy sheets,
only a sense that it felt right
to be in this place, this time.
Scott was an architect,
and so that was how
he imagined their link.
It was like an arch, a bridge,
a flying buttress -- something
that soared between them
and made them stronger.
It was what made Scott
ask about Hell and listen
to the slow unfolding confession.
It was what made the incubus
ask about architecture and ideas,
spooling out inspiration
as he once spooled threads of lust.
Then, too, it was in Scott's gentle reply
when the incubus asked when
the sexlessness would wear off,
explaining that no, it wasn't just a phase,
it had always been so for him
and might now be so for the incubus.
They were strangers,
they were different species,
and yet they were in harmony.
They never expected to fall in love --
and it was nothing so sudden
as falling from grace --
but it happened anyway,
falling like water, cool and lucid.
It was hard for the incubus
to conceive of love without sexual desire,
although he understood lust without love
quite readily from past experience.
When the Fledging came,
they both sprouted the wings
of Baltimore orioles,
black and brick-orange
and beautiful.
It was Scott who found
the old William Blake quote --
Love to faults is always blind,
always is to joy inclined.
Lawless, winged, and unconfined,
and breaks all chains from every mind. --
suggesting that it might explain
how the incubus came to be
uncoupled from Hell and
wrapped up with himself instead.
The incubus nodded,
and said that made sense.
The two of them went on
as they had been, slowly
making a life together,
building foundations brick by brick,
weaving ideas like blades of grass.
* * *
Notes:
"Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind."
Love to faults is always blind;
Always is to joy inclin’d,
Lawless, wing’d and unconfin’d,
And breaks all chains from every mind.
Deceit to secrecy confin’d,
Lawful, cautious and refin’d;
To anything but interest blind,
And forges fetters for the mind.
Blake: Gnomic Verses VII in The Poetical Works of William Blake, ed. John Sampson. Oxford Univ. Press, 1918, p. 194. (Thanks to thnidu for tracking down the correct citation. mdlbear says it's in William Blake: "Poems From Blake's Notebooks." The site where I first found the quote incorrectly attributed it to William Shakespeare.)
Fallingwater is a famous house.
http://www.fallingwater.org/assets/Fallingwater_Architecture.pdf
Baltimore orioles are skilled architects, weaving a nest that hangs under a branch.