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Friday 31 May 2013

Crossed Wires


A side effect
was synesthesia.*
Not in the tablets' literature...
no, not the bittiest of mentions.
So: scary when it struck.

The thunder cloud that had been hovering
above us for the past few hours
began to lose its blackness
and to smell and taste of liquorice.
The lightning fizzed
on two rear taste buds
to my tongue, that long ago
the doctor called defunct. The wind,
a gentle pea green zephyr in the early morning,
had worked up through the gears:
pale cobalt blue through indigo
to madder brown and crimson cruise control,
'til finally the the cloud released
the heaviest of thunder rolls.
Long, shimmering peals flaunted themselves above
the low hills and fell in waves as though
some heavenly dancer danced the dance of seven veils.
Some were plain. White. Silver. Yellow. Grey.
But others were more sexually explicit:
kitsch, vulgar, raffish in the jazz and clash of hues.

As evening drew the shades across the sky
I smelt the perfume of the stars. The Pole Star
stank of fish left too long on the beach (at least,
it was the Pole Star that I blamed), but most
were replicating smells they'd picked up in the garden
before the roses learnt to sing instead.
A real dawn chorus greeted me next morning
with floribundas easing up and down the scales
and climbers yodelling away
for all that they were worth.

The thunder was still hanging on.
More distant now. I heard it
as it echoed in the valleys deep between the hills...
Yes! Heard it! Echo! The tablets were losing their bite...


*Synesthesia: When one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another, as when stimulation of the hearing produces the sensation of colour.

The synesthesia prompt by Victoria C. Sloto - along with more info' - can be found at dVerse Poets Pub

29 comments:

Vandana Sharma said...

nice one

Mary said...

Love the sights and sounds and tastes in this poem. Enjoyed the 'real down chorus" and the 'lightning fizzed on two rear taste buds.' Good synesthesia, Dave.

Laurie Kolp said...

'I smelt the perfume of the stars.'

I just love that line, Dave.

Brian Miller said...

the fizz of lighting on your taste buds....the licorice of the storm....you really embraced what it would be like to get this as a side effect dave....how bizarre the world would seem eh?

brudberg said...

David, there are too many things to mention on this poetry .. you simply mastered it brilliantly.. licorice of thunderstorms and crimson cruise control (love the alliteration there) to the whole stanza about the stars and the garden...

Scarlet said...

How imaginative Dave ~ Like the colors of thunder and lightning ~ I also like: I smelt the perfume of the stars ~

Leovi said...

This beautiful poem full of colors that clash with each overflowing my imagination.

Anonymous said...

This is spectacular, Dave - someone literally struck by lightning here, waking up with access to another dimension - you've carried it off so humanly, with your typical humor and imagination. k.

Carl said...

I have had this condition my whole life. I associate certain sounds and types of music with colors. I believe it may have some impact on the color choices I make when I paint. I also associate numbers and groups of numbers with colors much like chords in music.

Cloudia said...

Quite a clever gambit. I read it aloud to my blog invisible poet husband :-)



Aloha

Anonymous said...

This is wonderful, David. I think you managed to include all the senses. I especially like the inclusion of color and tastes. So good.

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

A sheer delight reading this David, really one of your greatest..with a touch of Baudelaire too.

flaubert said...

I smelt the perfume of the stars is so beautiful, Dave. Nicely done poem.

Pamela

The Weaver of Grass said...

This is extremely clever stuff Dave and I suspect took a lot of working out.

Claudia said...

you had me with the star perfume...and now i wanna know how it smells exactly...ha...smiles

Anonymous said...

This is exquisite and I want to go outside and hear flowers yodel!

Elephant's Child said...

Oh. This is so rich, and so evocative. A five course meal in a single poem. Thank you so much.

kelvin s.m. said...

...oh, i hope the thunders will not go totally insane Sir... that's quite frightening... we here in philippines are in close embracing the wet season & we can expect for the worse...as this land is a true prone to storm visits... a haven for such a fatal visitation... i read that you smelt the stars... well back at my end... i swallowed them like salmons in the air... smiles... excellent take sir!

Anonymous said...

Dave, i love the liquorice thundercloud - so good! beautiful imagery, as always. hats off to you, Sir - you definitely nailed the prompt.

Ygraine said...

This is absolutely fabulous, Dave!
It feels like being inside a thunderbolt...like being part of everything else - all at once and with all senses.
I am overwhelmed with images...:)

Anonymous said...

Well, I could smell a little of this. So my limbic system was responding. ~Mary

Jenny Woolf said...

What a strange and interesting idea. I sometimes feel envious of people who see colours when they hear music and sounds.

Misterio Vida said...

wow... syensthesia... so i had the sensation of feeling while reading the poem :) great work as usual :)

Patrycja (photoopassion) said...

Great note. I wondered :)
  Yours.

+ Please visit our blogs. :)

"Everyone needs to dissolve the mean time, not only in words."

David Cranmer said...

Lovely poem, Dave. And thank you for expanding my vocabulary.

Gemma Wiseman said...

So love the image of the liquorice of the thunder clouds and the perfume of the stars! Brilliant metaphors connecting the senses!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dave =)

The new prompt is up!

Leovi said...

I like this interesting and creative mix of sensations. Lovely perfume of the stars, although slightly stronger than the North Star!

Dave King said...

This is a really satisfying set of responses. I do thanks everyone of you for your kind words and for having taken the time to comment. I have derived much from reading your thoughts -- I think it is maybe the main thing that keeps me blogging, so thaks again.