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| The teens at camp. They read my book! |
The teens who participated in Auburn’s creative writing camp this summer gave me an amazing gift. They wrote poems based on the opening of Cleopatra’s Moon. Some wrote from the perspective of the dead brother, others from the ship or even the ocean. I have to share some of them with you:
From the perspective of the ship:
Oak Beast
A beast made the flesh of oak
drifts across my body
the beast shouts in many voices
then it is silent.
It drops something into my depths
It sinks farther and farther
then, something drops out of its skin
a small black horse
From the dead brother’s point of view:
Forevermore
I am cold forevermore.
I am cold, and the world is black
and my heart is still
and I wish for rest.
As my eyes are covered,
the world grows colder, darker
and my journey begins.
I remain cold forevermore.
From Cleopatra Selene’s point of view:
Puzzle Incomplete
Watching him thoughtfully,
he left me behind
gone forever
sweet brother of mine,
heart swelled with grief and sorrow
I can only wish his soul a fair good morrow.
Farewell, my brother,
missing puzzle piece,
my friend.
From death’s point of view:
Death’s Ode to Little Moon
Such a sorry, pretty girl
rumored for grand things.
She hardly relieved her kin to me.
Her mother and her brother gone,
the last to die and be free.
Death’s sweet, swift comfort is to be known
by her weary eyes,
yet like her mother’s determined gaze,
it fails to fall, but rise.
And Anubis’s:
I’m Listening
She was praying
I heard her asking me
about her brother.
She was sending him my way
into the underworld,
entering the river westward.
There are many more wonderful examples of their work, of course–I just wanted to provide a sampling. But really, it’s all been so humbling. Thank you Ashley Parsons and Chantel Acevedo (writer and professor extraordinaire) for making it all happen!
Oh wow! I got chill bumps! That is indeed the highest compliment. 🙂