The Bush
#3
(07-10-2016, 12:20 AM)LunaDeLore Wrote:  
(07-09-2016, 11:12 PM)RiverNotch Wrote:  THE BUSH

Shoot the bow
and chase after
the arrow up
the hill and down ---------- this is a turn off; too much like up one side and down the other It's up a hill and down the mountain, which I think is different enough.
the mountain where
your flower, Sephorah, stands --  "your flower" doesn't make anything better, women are too often referred to as flowers I don't really see the issue here -- with the second, but notably different, use of flower in the piece, the use of flower for Moses' wife shouldn't be so offensive, at least aesthetically.

I heard her speak. I listened to her conspire. ----- as a reader I need something more intense like I hear her conspiring nuance
Remember, I can hear everything,   ------------- your attempting to invoke paranoia but it doesn't really work; it's just to plain I'm not trying to make this sound too sinister, but perhaps it's an element that would be useful. 
even what dreams may flower in the night. ------ "flower" is becoming redundant here...dreams are the product minds unleashed This is only the second time flower is used, and its use is as a verb, not a noun. I don't see how 'flower' here has become either redundant or unnecessary, especially considering the speaker's hinted use of "flower" for women....
She said she would not cut the skin,  ------ why not cut through skin or slice a vein Because foreskin breaks the rhythm, and this is a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipporah_at_the_inn
she would not appear before you red
no, she was too afraid of bloodshed.
And so I will show her bloodshed. ------ this line doesn't really need "and so" using one or the other is better here Agreed. Gonna stealth-edit that out.

But I do not condemn your choice. You walk
the right path, your feet ------- walking the "right path" again, is something we see often I don't see how I'm gonna improve upon this. I think the next image, 'red feet', justifies the slight, slight cliche.
being already red.
This is your destiny, Moses: These next few lines are probably my favorite
out of Egypt
will you carry
your mother's bones,
your father's bones,
then bury them
in a hundred-silver tomb at Shechem,

right next to where the lion 
should become a home for honey,
but far before the land where the lamb   ----- when reading out loud, land and lamb nearly drown one another out In the very first draft, these last two lines didn't even exist. Now I'm considering just removing the two (the "snows atop Mount Nabau" should be enough to keep with the mini-theme here, which I don't think I need to reveal right now) and leaving this with, say, an ellipsis.
should return to the snows of the temple.


Now don't weep. You won't    -------- the transition between the previous strophe and this one isn't good. As a reader I find myself wonder how I got here Agreed. Any suggestions?
taste any of it anyway. For you,
the waters of lake Marah
or perhaps the snows atop Mount Nabau
shall be sweet enough.
There's so much cliche in the first two strophes it's hard to appreciate where your going with the following three. As a reader I need something to draw me in and prepare for what's to come. Furthermore, S4 doesn't fuse well with S5 for me; I think omitting "don't weep" would work better. -- I'm not sure that's the solution: at that point, God is basically telling Moses he's not gonna die in the promised land, thus the "don't weep", but perhaps the sentiment really is clear enough?

 You have something to work with here and with some revision you'll have a great poem, really.

Good work.

Luna
Thanks for the feedback. I shall mull.
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Messages In This Thread
The Bush - by RiverNotch - 07-09-2016, 11:12 PM
RE: The Bush - by LunaDeLore - 07-10-2016, 12:20 AM
RE: The Bush - by RiverNotch - 07-10-2016, 04:19 PM
RE: The Bush - by Achebe - 07-10-2016, 07:35 PM
RE: The Bush - by RiverNotch - 07-13-2016, 07:09 PM
RE: The Bush - by CRNDLSM - 09-12-2016, 04:19 AM
RE: The Bush - by heslopian - 09-21-2016, 12:23 PM
RE: The Bush - by CRNDLSM - 10-03-2016, 01:04 AM
RE: The Bush - by RiverNotch - 10-03-2016, 10:43 AM



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