Wilde's Revenge

By Taren Maple

Dawn rises over crisp land.
A woman smiles, buttermilk lips, with autumn-red tint.
Baby's cry breaks silence, handsome cacophony in a polluted city.
The writer continues the scene, powerful, all-seeing.
He is deliberate with wit, a golden man, extravagant.
Now the child will sleep, the woman will leave.
Silence returns,
a deadly fiend thorough in its kill.
Rain washes away dreams, baptizes youth.
Dreams fold in on themselves,
a simple white tee in a drying machine
Wiped clean again.

Stars emerge;
lights guide explorers of the skies.
A writer was born,
he made Earth an anonymous eyeball, blinded by cream clouds.
Life screamed for destiny,
so we were made wilde,
beasts who feed on the weak.

Taren is a student of poetry under the instruction of Dr. Craig Paulenich. She wrote the following poem as an excercize of the one above, writing it backwards from the last line up and from right to left, with some editing decisions. While the excercize suggests possibilities to the poet in regards to her own work and process, the product is fun for readers. It is interesting to watch how the poem means differently.

Revenge of Wilde

Weak feed on beasts, Wilde made.
Destiny screamed for life
Clouds by cream, blinded, anonymous made Earth
Born was a writer,
explorer that guides the light.
Emerge stars.

Again clean wipe
Machine drying, a tee white,
they fold on dreams.
Youth baptizes, dream away the wash rain
Kill its thorough fiend, return silence.
Leave the will woman.
Sleep the will child.
Extravagant, golden, wit deliberant
Seeing-all, powerful, a continued writer
City polluted, a cacophony handsome,
silence breaks the cry.
Tint red autumn lips, buttermilk smiles,
Land crisp over dawn.