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Thea Wood's avatar

No battle glory

Mundane living every day

In Hel I now dwell.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Well done, it does seem like an unfair trajectory🖤

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A.P. Murphy's avatar

The everyday

matter of

decomposing.

Composting here

our rotgoddess

lets us rest in peace

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Honeygloom's avatar

*changes name to rotgoddess*

Actually this is really lovely, there’s something kind of romantic in the surrender to decay.

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A.P. Murphy's avatar

Absolutely, there are so many films where a sequence of decay is given a romantic/mystical The end of the movie Godland for example. Or a magnificent scene in Cosmos Panatos' "Mandy" where the titular Mandy comes upon a decaying fawn (bambi) in the woods and nurtures it as if she was its mother.

I remember writing a very bad poem on the theme when I was about 15. And 'romantic poets' are always "half in love with easeful Death".

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Honeygloom's avatar

I wrote so many poems staring down into my compost heap when I used to have one. It’s a very contemplative process.

My favorite rotting quote is this from Edvard Munch: From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them, and that is eternity.

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A.P. Murphy's avatar

Noted and stolen. Expect to see that line recycled in my next piece. Which if you think about it is the right thing to do with rotting compost.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Looking forward to it!

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erniet's avatar

Hel Lokisdottir--

Blameless for your parentage

And where you reside.

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Honeygloom's avatar

I love this, a very sympathetic take🖤

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erniet's avatar

She always seemed a sad figure to me…sort of like the red-headed stepchild of the gods….

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Honeygloom's avatar

I can’t remember which version of the myth it was, maybe Neil Gaiman’s, but Odin gives her Hel because he feels bad for her, she’s not really a monster, just… no one wants to be around her.

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erniet's avatar

Yeah, that’s what it seemed like!

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ClownWorld Shakespeare's avatar

Another ending:

Hello and goodbye

One brings joy, one makes me cry

***Life’s sweet lullaby***

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Honeygloom's avatar

Aw, that is very sweet with that ending, I love it🖤

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ClownWorld Shakespeare's avatar

I'll be IGing that one.

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ClownWorld Shakespeare's avatar

I did use "Hel".... but not exactly the prompt you were looking for. But then again, it does hit on prompt's theme of living side by side with internal contradictions (living body v. decomposing body).

Hello and goodbye

One brings joy, one makes me cry

I laugh, grin and sigh

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Honeygloom's avatar

I like it!! It’s like “Go, Dog. Go!” but for morbid kids🖤

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Richard Blaisdell's avatar

Robbing Hel is to remove light.

A halfway point of no return

Where Hel has no fury for future bliss.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Very nice! You paint a very dramatic picture🖤

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