II. Ange’s prompt guidelines
- Below are the first 14 lines of Leonard Cohen’s (1934 – 2016) ‘Anthem’;
- Select any two or three of Cohen’s lines from below andincorporate them into a poem of your own;
- You must: keep Cohen’s words in the original order, but you may change the punctuation;
- Your poem should be no less than five lines and no more than 20 lines.
‘Anthem’ lyrics
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Ah, the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove, she will be caught again
Bought and sold, and bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
***
“Ah, the wars they will be fought again, The holy dove, she will be caught again”
It is our nature to protect
What we perceive to be our sect
If only just the leaders stood
Not use our young for firewood
Then they might see the havoc caused
A dream, I know, that they would pause
It should be stated in a clause:
Close ever harmful open jaws.
***
W3 Prompt #69: Wea’ve Written Weekly
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