Flickering lights of questioning turn beside the river
Water Roses (2008) by Johannes Beilharz
Pixels on screen
I’m in a mood to resent the flickering poetic lights
strewn across the water,
and any questioning I might have a turn with
is dulled at this moment,
lulled by undulation and lapping,
as I reflect here darkly beside the river…
– James Steerforth
(© 2008)
History of genesis
As suggested by Poets Who Blog, I turned to Grab and Go Poetry for writing inspiration (also called “prompt” nowadays) and, following instructions, called up Poet’s Online Random Line Generator to obtain a line for use in a poem of my own. After discarding about a dozen lines that reeked too much of the rancid oil of standard po-et-ry, I finally, but still a bit reluctantly, settled for the flickering lights above and let them take me to a river of my imagination.
Thanks for taking part. I didn’t really check out the quality of the lines before hand, sorry about that.
Anyway, you made something beautiful out of it all the same. I could picture you there at that river. Its like a painting, this poem.
I’m happy you liked this poem.
No need to apologize for the lines delivered by the random generator – I’m always curious about how well those work. I had fun.
Thanks for the prompt!
Reeked of the rancid oil of po-e-try… wow. you did incorporate the words from the line to your poem’s advantage.
I didn’t find the lines as disgusting as you did, but I did refresh the page a few times, looking for the right lie.
Have you tried the random generator on readwritepoem? Maybe it would be more to your liking.