Cultural Shadows

Trees in the Harvest Moon's Sun

What we presume is true we have no doubt.
It lies in shadows where it tends to be
Hidden from inspection, not found out.
Beliefs are more like leaves upon a tree.
Light shines and they are prettier to see.
What underlies them, on the other hand,
Stays hidden like the ground on which we stand.

Text: I am linking this to dVerse Meeting the Bar.  I will be hosting and the form is Chaucerian stanza or rime royale: seven lines rhyming ababbcc.  You are welcome to join us writing a poem in this form.

Photos: “Trees in the Harvest Moon’s Sun”, above, and “Deeper Autumn”, below, by the author.

Deeper Autumn

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

63 thoughts on “Cultural Shadows”

  8. Your illustration for the prompt is bang on, right to the 10 syllable lines. I also agree that to stimulate more participation, we all need some leeway, right? I kind of dream MTB prompts, but each time as I get into them, I feel my knowledge growing, and my style improving. It is good to be a poet who hangs out at a pub with the likes of you, sir.

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    1. Thank you, Glenn! Once one has written a few of these, one can take the form into new directions. The form is just an objectification of a sound pattern that hopefully provides the reader with a pleasing experience.

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  9. Very nicely done, Frank. I like the lines:
    ‘Beliefs are more like leaves upon a tree.
    Light shines and they are prettier to see’.
    We know the roots are there, even though they’re hidden.

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  16. Underneath most every
    Living Tree is a Subconscious
    Root System that Brings A Life
    to LiVinG Leaves Spreading wHere
    They Please No Planning Needed
    For it is Nature’s Intuition of
    Roots
    that
    Spread
    a Vine Higher
    iN Trees Above
    Leaving Fall
    of Leaves
    to
    Fertilize
    More Now A
    Rebirth of Life..
    It’s interesting Frank
    for i have no idea how i write
    poetry i have no idea how i dance
    but ‘they’ understand it all for those
    Roots have been around much longer
    than
    what
    i know
    for what i feel
    for what i sense
    is beyond all i know for now..
    Anyway.. what i feel and sense in
    a feel and sense is i find a Yin and Yang
    of Poetry in Xenia and Frank now at dVerse Poets Pub..
    Quite a Seek and Find always for what comes next Freer..
    See ya later
    Friend
    off to
    Dance i go
    to rest my hands
    back to write to rest my feat..:)

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    1. The truth may be more beautiful than those leaves, but the leaves are only part of it. I often wonder if my own cultural grounding might be an illusion about what the ground really is. The leaves are still there and they’re beautiful but my understanding of them is not so much. Thanks, Kathy.

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  21. Profound! Leaves turn the light into fuel and provide shelter to those in need. It falls and nurtures the soil in wintry days … But when spring returns, new beliefs form. But I suppose some beliefs belong to the evergreen that may be infallible? The poem is masterfully done. Thanks for this wonderful demonstration.

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    1. Thank you! I tried to illustrate the form exactly. The evergreen needles also fall if I’m not mistaken, but the analogy between leaves and beliefs only carries so far anyway. Trusting that it is good in spite of everything may be close to an infallible belief because the alternative leads nowhere.

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    1. The second photo came from last year later in the autumn season when the maple trees were in full color. They haven’t reached that stage yet this year. I liked the covering your leaves made. They fit beautifully your poem.

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      1. Strangely enough, I couldn’t find one photo of my mother in my photo library on my computer. I’m i the states now and all my albums are in Mexico. Must remedy that when I get home.

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        1. I upload my photos on Google Drive, but I keep the originals on disk and flash drives. The originals are full size. Google compresses the photos a bit, but it is unnoticeable (for me). The good part is they are always available being in the cloud. I resize them even more for WordPress.

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          1. I have been trying for over a year to download my photos to Google Drive as well as the Amazon Cloud and I cannot figure out how to do so. So frustrating. I even paid for 1 T. storage but can’t get them heavenward!!!!

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        2. I have the extra Google Drive storage as well. We put old digitally converted VHS videos up there so the children could have access to them. The photos upload directly to Google Photos from my phone. Although I linked Google Photos to Google Drive so they can be viewed there as a folder, I usually go directly to https://photos.google.com/ to view the photos. There is an UPLOAD link which will take a file from your computer and put it on the cloud although I have not used that method. Google Photos should not cost anything extra if you accept the compression that Google performs on the photos. We needed the extra space for the videos. You may also need to use your gmail account to access this. You could also create a folder in Google Drive and copy photos from your computer to that location. That should get them there as well.

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  28. Very well written and insightful. The reasons “underneath” a cultural practice are often scary or nonsensical. I agree with you there. We seem to a remain with a sense of superstition even when there are facts.

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