Apples hold secrets like forests hold trees
deep in the husks of their seeds.
Secrets like cyanide can become lethal
and exile desires to breathe.
Screaming for freedom, secrets are stories,
peering up from beneath our dis-
ease.
Three blind spiders spinneret nests
and cosset enigmas in spirit,
piles of promises (cradled arachnids),
clues to secrets’ deep web,
like cyanide in apple seeds
buried in flesh
through stories wrapped round in red.
Brenda Warren 2013
Process Notes: The first two lines are from The Soul’s Arsonist, a poem I wrote in June. After writing about three blind spiders, the piece stopped. Clicking on the apple tag in the sidebar I found apples and secrets in two lines of a piece, and started over using them for this week’s Whirl. It was nice to see the spiders spin in again. Little pieces can form bigger pieces. Eden’s Promise is best served aloud. I like it. I didn’t use the words rash or claws from the wordle.
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Eerie and delicious, Brenda. As always, beautifully written.
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Just noticed your virtual cairn. Love it…I do something similar only not online. I live a block from the Truckee river and she offers so many beautiful river rocks. Eventually I return them.
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I love this, Brenda. The first line is fantastic, then the progression…and the whole poem feels spun, like a web. Perfect.
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Very evocative of this season and this is so well-crafted, Brenda. I appreciate your ability to work with this thyme scheme and how you use active verbs to bring the poem to life.
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Your blind spiders reminded me of the three blind mice. Surly the loss of sight a is minimal inconvenience for the spiders. But the mice, being from a nursery rhyme might have been coded to mean three leaders who were somehow blind in seeing truth but perhaps there was some justice as the farmer’s wife cut off their tails!
It is nice when pieces of things are given new life. I like that if you cut an apple through the middle you can see a five pointed star – the core that houses the seeds. A secret you wouldn’t know about if you just ate the apple. 🙂
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Like how you end with “stories wrapped round in red.” Spiders and apples make a fascinating swirl, Brenda.
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I found rash and claws difficult, too. I found a poetry group in my area and have been hanging out with them. They are beginning to understand wordles from my sharing. I should send them here.
Secrets are like cyanide, aren’t they? It doesn’t matter who the recipient is. It poisons both. Three blind spiders took me by surprise but they fit in well with the poison.
I like your new banner.
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I found this poem to be so mysterious. A thrilling read right from the first two strong lines!
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Very nice. I love the flow and I think i like the first verse a bit more than the second.
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Your poem is a read worth savoring like that first bite of an apple and made me think of the Adam and Eve story too. They certainly were dark words you selected this week.
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Apples hold secrets like forests hold trees
deep in the husks of their seeds.
Apples can be mystifying though in abundance. Spiders are rare just as mystifying. Combined they make great references. Nicely Brenda!
Hank
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I will join the spider-liking crowd. As long as they don’t bite. Nicely woven together, spideers, apples, cyanide…
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Beautiful piece, Brenda. That last stanza is superb. I am late getting round, I had many household chores today. I hope you had a relaxing Sunday. Today, the sun has come out and it has been divine. I have been fine, though the rain has been very depressing for me. We had a sinkhole down the road, it is on my way to work. Seems many crops have been destroyed from these two storms. And those poor people in Acapulco. It is very sad. I am glad it is over.
Pamela
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Love the combination of apples, secrets, and spiders!
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Apples and spiders and secrets – delightfully mysterious, though I do agree that secrets really do want to be told. Nicely done.
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Secrets have only one longing, to be unraveled and their story told. And we are ever the vessels of all those feelings. The spider is an excellent totem for a writer. A creature with eight legs to signify its ability to travel in any and all directions. Love your notes and these wordle words always take us in any and all directions.
Elizabeth
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I loved the spiders, their story, woven, and their nests.
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WOW! the first two lines are absolute dynamite the rest of the poem builds from this tension and “buried in flesh
through stories wrapped round in red.” I can’t help but feel that this is a much much larger poem and subject than at first reading. Bravo !
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I like it too, Brenda. Secrets like cyanide…yes, sometimes secrets can be our poison.
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Think I will eat oranges in future, if it’s OK with you.
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It’s the secrets they hold that make apples so tempting…
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Spiders are my friends: they eat pesky flies. Your poem is mysterious, beautifully wordled.
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