This Heat
Look at it,
our garden is insatiable thirst
while Spain
and Greece
and Turkey’s streets
are rivers.
This is heat, thick as darkness.
Words ringing unfamiliar
on your tongue,
and thoughts erased
as if graffiti.
This is heat. It bewilders
your brain
with levitating dizziness.
This heat is the new Babel.
Written for the new prompt site at What’s Going On. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text or captioned. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.
What disappoints me is that people choose not to make the connection…
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A Babel of our own making.
The inner rhythm of your ink, M, is … not consigned to oblivion.
(Any Jackson prompted to MJ?)
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Thank you, my dear friend. On MJ, I never actually use another artist’s painting or drawing. I do use method and/or school to sway the bot in a particular direction. In this case, I used every word (minus conjunctions and articles) from the poem, added words like heated molten colours, paint splatters, drip technique, mixed media, in the style of abstract expressionist movement. Unsurprisingly, it looks like a Pollock. I try not to clone another artist’s creation; I don’t consider myself an artist, although I do paint.
I am so glad to read that you’re not offended by my AI art, because I do understand why an artist might feel AI threatening to their livelihood and creative gift. (Have you read about the Omega weather pattern over Europe at the moment?) https://www.weatherandradar.co.uk/weather-news/elongated-summer-omega-weather-pattern-grips-europe–372e707a-9d98-4b9f-a69d-179663caae03
“Levitating dizziness”, brilliant description! 👌👌👏👏❤️❤️
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It was Miro who sprang to mind for me. The colours. It is all wrong, anyone with half a brain and a modicum of honesty can see it.
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Miro, yes. Might even be Calder, come to think of it.
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Blistering!
Both art and words.
Indictment of the world.
❤️
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There are people who never read a newspaper or watch the evening news, and have no clue what’s happening in the world.
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I think I need to turn on a fan now!
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Mines been on since April !
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Misky,
There is indeed a very worrying decline in this earthly comfort, as climatic changes bear upon our lives. It’s a scary point to have reached, especially as temperatures continue to rise, bringing such uncontrolled wildfires, flooding and despair.
It is a babel for this age and easily captured in many art forms…
Excellent poem for the prompt 🙂
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Thank you so very much.
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I sure resonate with this poem, as the rainforest I live in has been in drought all this year and we are running out of water. Total change of climate. So glad you stopped by What’s Going On? and added your link. The art is awesome, too. Lovely to see you.
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Thanks, Sherry. Happy to have found you.
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Oh, good comparison!
The Dome has actually drifted a bit south of us for the moment and it’ (knock wood) close to pleasant, but that is going to mean no rain in the foreseeable future. Great for Florida which doesn’t need another hurricane, though.
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We’re stuck in a weather pattern called an Omega. A perfect example of it, says the weatherman. Ten days of 90°f . The garden finished early in exhaustion. Are your hummingbirds still around?
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Oh, boy are they! There can be as many as twelve or fifteen at any given moment. But they appear and disappear so suddenly an accurate count is impossible.
We have three feeders, and they go through almost 2 liters of sugar water a day. And that’s just what we feed them. When they get real nectar and sap they are also getting bugs, which they need, so there are at least twice as many foraging as we see at any given time.
Weird thing: the eastern US has only one variety, Ruby Throated. There are several others in the west. Ours will all pack up pretty soon and graze their way down to the Gulf Coast to stoke before the trip across to Mexico. Tiny birds, long flight.
We’ve had delivery persons collapse and have heart attacks due to this terrible heat in Louisiana. Last month nearly did me in as a rare blood courier! Great verse as always … levitating dizziness is a good phrase and fits me in this heat with my heart and blood pressure! http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2023/09/neither-monster-nor-saint.html
This may be my one and only encounter with AI so far, so I enjoyed your conversation with Spira above For me, AI and sampling aside, the illustration sizzled and is heat, this is heat, unnatural raw and unconquerable. “Levitating dizziness” indeed. I was astonished with the word Babel, having expected Hell, but it fits, strangely. it made me go to the top and read through again. Powerful piece.
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