Elan Mudrow
Smidgens
The Cave (Portrait #8)
The lamps bob in between echoes. They can only reverberate for so long, then disappear around a curve.
So we tether together, in small groups of nonsense
It is our belief that we will come to the end, turn around, and find the hole that led us here.
The darkness frightens as it exhilarates. Light belongs to the outside, unless we fake it. We bring it in, a one-sided light, to see death.
But not the kind we know.
We have little recognition of what was swept away inside this tube, the greens, browns of them all.
Once, birds flew to eat them, colors, when the sun revealed reflections, before the lava carved a new direction.
Now we are birds who cannot fly, fluttering about in a search. We don’t need to eat, we are filled to the brim.
Candy wrappers litter the cave floor like plastic feathers, stepped upon as we crawl…. hands and knees if needed, sniffing for remnants of milk chocolate, almonds, the sugars that keep us hanging on to our lamps, that we always seem to lose.
And like prized gullets….
We clean the darkness, then analyze our refuse.
24 Comments on “The Cave (Portrait #8)”
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Reblogged this on and commented:
Great post
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Thanks for sharing this. The poem and the picture I saw on my head as I read, lingers.
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Interesting take. I like it.
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Very atmospheric… I’m a big HP Lovecraft fan, it had ‘craftian feel. Plus the rooting through the detritus we inevitably leave behind, hunting through what is like us instead of venturing into the unknown and new.
Well, my take on it anyhow!
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Beautifully written – it captured me and I could see the image brought forth with the words. Thank you.
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I was there…in that cave.
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Thanks
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beautiful piece
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Reblogged this on ronniephoenix's Blog.
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Beautiful imagery, well crafted.
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Fascinating images – especially candy wrappers that litter the cave floor like feathers. It’s like two sides of a coin.
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Yes, it’s a classic. In grad school it comes up from time to time. But, then there is his mistrust of representation, his arguments pertaining to Gorgias and rhetoric, and of course idea of the perfect form. All might be in my poem
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Nice descriptions. Really had the feel ff the place.
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Nice, consider a;so Plato’s allegory of Shadows on a Cave Wall. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm
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Wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at first, but so atmospheric, a warning too.
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Very nicely done 🙂
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I got this feeling during a hike through the Ape Caves in the state of Washington. One long tube. One way “back” out.
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That cave – what a place you took us to!
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Thanks
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Reblogged this on The Adventures of Real World Girl.
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Reblogged this on Niki.V.all.ways.My.way..
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I loved the tone, imagery, and mystery of this piece. I was in that cave.
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Nicely done. Candy wrappers as.. feathers, brilliant !
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