O at the Edges

Musings on poetry, language, perception, numbers, food, and anything else that slips through the cracks.

Icarus

Posted on January 22, 2019 by robert okaji

Icarus

the answer is
not the history
of flight but

a question of
wings a notion
born of desperation

and fright each
quill ruffled by
the delicate tongue

of air can
only reflect this
fortune a dream

but never a
tragedy the gift
of gravity’s denial

Written probably in 1985 or 1986, this is the first poem I titled “Icarus.” After lurking in a drawer for decades, it made its first public appearance here on the blog in December 2017.

10 thoughts on “Icarus”

bingingonabudget on January 21, 2019 at 8:58 am said:

Thanks for sharing, beautiful writing.

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- robert okaji on January 22, 2019 at 5:17 am said:
  
  Thanks very much.
  
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jessicahalseywrites on January 21, 2019 at 11:12 am said:

I can’t remember if I told you this but your Icarus poems inspired my poem Twisted Myths 🙂

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- robert okaji on January 22, 2019 at 5:17 am said:
  
  Ah! 😊
  
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Jazz Jaeschke on January 21, 2019 at 9:18 pm said:

Love the wording: each / quill ruffled by / the delicate tongue / of air

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- robert okaji on January 22, 2019 at 5:21 am said:
  
  Thanks, Jazz. One of the few poems of my youth that sounds like me. 🙂
  
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Carrie Birde on January 25, 2019 at 12:26 pm said:

Geez, you’ve got my number today…I’m off to find a tissue ❤

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- robert okaji on January 27, 2019 at 4:19 am said:
  
  The highest compliment! Thank you!
  
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kvennarad on February 2, 2019 at 12:29 am said:

1986? Jings! I hadn’t even thought of writing poetry back then.

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- robert okaji on February 2, 2019 at 11:34 am said:
  
  I could lie and say I was a child prodigy, but alas, I’m just aged.
  
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10 thoughts on “Icarus”

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