Creative Traditional:

[Lycan]

THE GIFT
It’s a lilting falling feather;
It’s a waving maiden’s hair;
It puts rain and chill together;
It drifts snowflakes through the air.
It’s a rippled calming ocean;
It’s the driven thunder storm;
It is tumbleweeds slow motion;
And the way tornadoes form.
It’s a brisk caress of skin;
It’s a plume of smoke in-flight;
It’s the curtains billowed in;
It’s the murmurs in the night.
It’s the dancing grass in time;
It’s the swell beneath each bird;
It’s the sound to aid a mime;
And it’s carriage for a word.
It’s a wafting scent of flowers;
It’s the shimmer to a flame;
It’s one of several powers;
And the error in your aim;
It’s the ruffled flap of flags;
It’s the thrust to fill a sail;
It’s a tarp that lifts and sags;
It’s a silent force to gale;
It’s a soaring eagle’s glide;
It’s a hazy wisp of glare;
It’s a kite prepared to ride
Through the gift of wind held bare.

REBIRTH
It can be the warmth you wish for;
It can lighten up the night;
It can flicker ‘round the earth’s core;
It can breathe the fire-light.
It can spark an engine into life;
And breed the lava’s heat;
It can temper out the sharpest knife;
And sizzle ‘low your feet.
It can turn the water into steam;
And be a Norse farewell;
It can raise a phoenix from a dream;
And help a jet propel.
It can be a flare from out the sun;
Or ride a dragon’s speech;
It can drive a bullet from a gun;
And rid a sucking leech.
It can be a sparkled spectacle;
It’s power for a weld;
It can burn coal ‘till electrical;
It’s when a star’s expelled.
It can be a comet’s trailing tail;
An oven’s searing heart;
It can set a smoking sign to sail;
Rend adhesion apart.
Olympic in its’ thoroughfare;
Has no tangible girth;
It’s in the bush-land cinders where
The ground begins rebirth.

RETURN
It segments layers of the past;
It hides the jewels we mine;
Its ownership on earth is vast;
In sand, its role is fine.
It rides the wind in storms of dust;
It’s won by war-torn fates;
It’s born anew in molten crust;
It’s why a tree gestates.
It’s foundations for everything;
From space, it’s green and blue;
It’s why sonars return their ping;
It’s even Uluru.
It’s dankly, underground, lit caves;
It’s liquefied in mud;
It greets the end of rolling waves;
It’s waterlogged in flood.
Intrinsical to landscaping;
It’s farmed in fertile fields;
It’s, continents still reshaping;
And crests displayed on shields.
It’s fossils stored eons ago;
It’s ‘neath a coral reef;
It filters clean as rivers flow;
It built the world motif.
It washes through a panning sieve;
It formed Canopic urns;
It’s where all life began to live
Onto; that life returns.

DESIGN
It covers seven-tenths of earth;
Supports aquatic life;
Its mooring’s beneath ships at berth;
In draught it’s rarely rife.
It’s oxygen and hydrogen;
Torrentially it falls;
It’s low tide, set to rise again;
It’s oceanic squalls.
It’s nodes of ice in driving rain;
Poseidon’s realm of rule;
It cuts the earth, shaping terrain;
It keeps a fever cool.
It powered ancient aqueducts;
It lifts a risen wave;
It’s homes an Inuit constructs;
It’s blest upon a nave.
Cascading over mountain tops;
It sates a parching thirst;
It trickles life to farming crops;
It fills balloons to burst.
It washes our exterior;
It’s salted like our blood;
It makes a day seem drearier;
It liquefies the mud.
It’s stagnant in a silent pond;
We’re sixty-five percent;
It’s droplets from a cactus frond
Providing nourishment...

By water chiefly cold and wet
The earth is dry and cold,
Then Aristotle mused to let
The aether, also hold,
A cosmic elemental spot
To form the upper sky,
Alas, as air is wet and hot
And fire hot and dry.
The aether hadn’t qualities
Nor momentum beeline,
So thus all spatial entities
Have aetheric design.
10/10/2011

© Copyright 2011 Adam Parker

[nomadicrhymer]

A lovely leisurely read... very well thought out. I love the beat and rhyme that I picked up while reading

Nomad

[Lycan]

Thank you Nomadicrhymer! I always try to get the meter as close as possible. I don't always succeed but this one seemed to work well.
I tried to make each line an example of the element the poem was on, such as the first being wind, the second fire, the third earth and the final water.
Thank you again.

[MsJacquiiC]

What a lovely metered piece of poetry. This piece flows so well! The rhyme scheme is traditional, but what made it special for me is that there's nary a hint of a forced rhyme. Not the most easy feat for such a long poem. So congrats on that = Nicely done!

The Following Text Is Quoted:

Originally Posted by Lycan

such as the first being wind, the second fire, the third earth and the final water.

The only criticism I would have (and it's a very small one) is that you rename the piece to reflect the actual order of elements as presented in the poem. Otherwise a really nice write Lycan! Welcome back again ((feel free to reintroduce yourself via the Member Introductions section btw)) and thanks for the share!

J.

[Lycan]

Thanks MsJacquiiC, I actually did think of that when I titled it but I felt the flow was slightly off when I rearranged it that way. I felt the meter ran better with the rest of the poem with "Water, Earth, Wind And Fire"
I could be totally wrong and it would make more sense the other way.
Thanks

[MsJacquiiC]

LOL - well I suppose it is much more about the content than the title. I just found myself looking up at the title to see which element was next. I know - a little lame on my part, but anyway... Don't laugh

J.