antithetical

it seems seas of storms’ve been

tended in the zen garden

will opposition end them?

mindfully

scripted disasters seeded into stones, sands and tea

ceremonies

centre of central fountain’s pattern random centre

off-course, of course

goldfish swim in impoverished formations

lively as corpses

unsuspecting

guests rest meditatively resistant

sands unshifting, kintsugi*-ed rocks rent asunder

dusty distant thoughts prevail

there are no mistakes , there is no…

consciousness

His Holiness enters, in pieces

holds his tea

in shaking hands

.

btw

april 29 2024

Crispin School Library, Street, Somerset, UK

.

*Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — a metaphor for embracing your flaws and imperfections.

.

https://www.napowrimo.net

 Day 29 prompt:- If you’ve been paying attention to pop-music news over the past couple of weeks, you may know that Taylor Swift has released a new double album titled “The Tortured Poets Department.” In recognition of this occasion, Merriam-Webster put together a list of ten words from Taylor Swift songs. We hope you don’t find this too torturous yourself, but we’d like to challenge you to select one these words, and write a poem that uses the word as its title.

my choice:- Antithetical

Song Title/Album: “Hits Different” / Midnights

Lyric: “Bet I could still melt your world / Argumentative, antithetical dream girl”

Definition: directly opposite or opposed

About the Word: The adjective antithetical and noun antithesis come from the Greek verb antitithenai (“to oppose”). The oldest sense of antithesis refers to a language pattern that contrasts parallel ideas, as in “action, not words” or “they promised liberty and provided oppression,” and antithetical originally referred to anything that was marked by such antithesis. For example, you could say “The phrase ‘action, not words’ is an antithetical construction.” It is more common, however, for antithesis to mean “the exact opposite” and for antithetical to mean “directly opposite,” as in “his shy demeanor seems antithetical to his dream of being a famous actor.” Usually antithetical is paired with to, as in the previous example, but in Taylor Swift’s song “Hits Different,” she seems to be using the word creatively in a way similar to oppositional.