Hate (An Antonymized Poem)

Today’s NaPoWriMo.net prompt was to write disliking something it. Today’s VerseLove prompt was to write a poem using antonyms from the line of another poem. I tried to blend the two prompts. I was going to choose one line and evoke a poem from that, but decided, instead, to antonymize the entire poem “Lovesong for Lucinda” by Langston Hughes.

Hate
Is a rotting stone
Shriveling in a citrine field.
Spit it out
And the curse of its repulsion 
Will choke and ensnare you.
Hate
Is a Black Hole
Obscuring light from the depths.
Ignore too long
And its icy spears
Will never heal your heart.
Hate
Is the nethermost of the ocean
Lurking in a motionless abyss.
If you
Will always exhale your mind
Do not fall too low. 

Warning

For Day 3 of NaPoWriMo I decided to do my own thing.  This is based on Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem” which can be found at Poetry Foundation.

 

What happens to a voice unheard?

         Does it get lodged
         Like popcorn kernels behind a tonsil?
         Or deflate like a tire—
         And then collapse?
         Does it smell like singed hair?
         Or bubble and fizz—
         Like a chemical reaction?

         Maybe it just whispers
         Like cotton in one’s ears.

         Or does it scream?