I hit play on R.E.M.’s first
studio album, sip
this soft-spoken red
consider my life’s turns.
Had it been,
if I’d had… an aortic,
an Austin Flint, a diastolic,
or an ejection – never learned
what – I might have pursued
writing.
But never murmur.
Posted on dVerse Poets Pub. Written for the quadrille night… the magic word is, “murmur.”
Life in Portofino 
Really subtle murmurs here. That you were looking for something in your heart that you couldn’t find. Yet here you are writing, not murmuring.
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Oh, I murmur things at times when I’m writing. Trust me on that one!
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It’s not really autobiographical. When I was a baby, the doctor thought I might have a heart murmur. No other doctor… no scan… has detected anything. Just seemed like a good take on the word.
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Yes, It worked really well.
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I’m glad!
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Oh, MY. I absolutely love this, Charley. That last line…that “soft-spoken red.” YES.
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Thank you! It came rushing out of my fingers into the laptop with that prompt word. Keen fun.
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Life turns in mysterious ways… i do love that record but found R.E.M. much later I’m afraid.
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I’m glad you liked it. I’m not much into R.E.M. The album begged my attention, what with that title.
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You’ve done a superb job on this Quadrille, Charliey. I love the phrase ‘sip this soft-spoken red’ and the what-ifs.
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Thank you! It just all jumped out and mugged me with the word, “murmur.” That hasn’t happened with a prompt lately.
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Hmmm… my logical side keeps returning to the 2nd stanza. I read this that the poet’s voice is pondering what would have happened with a heart murmur – that diagnosis would have lead to a life of writing? That is intriguing! Well-written poem.
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I’m glad you went into that. I don’t know that it would have had that effect on someone… but one never knows. Thanks for the deep reading, Jilly!
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Soft-spoken red ….. love that phrase and a great inner reflection captured here
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Thank you! I love to play with words… and wine.
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Clever “take” on the word murmur. Bravo
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Thank you! I’m glad it worked.
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Love the title you chose to go with this clever poem
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Thank you! I’m a bit of a punster.
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Your title is so aptly put here….use of the heart ailment terms within…and the murmur at the end. And what one is able to pursue….and chooses to pursue when these terms come into play. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it…..since my husband had a cardiac arrest some 5 years ago and we remain, thankful for every day….and our paths on earth have changed and picked up the pace since that event.
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I love how poetry keys into personal filters and becomes more! Read as much as you’d like into it.
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Silly question but what’s ‘an Austin Flint’?
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A type of heart murmur. No question is ever silly… at least not by itself! 🙂
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Thank you! It sounded familiar but I was thinking Austin Powers…
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🙂 Not a murmur there!
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Nope.
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Loved this!
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Thank you! I’m glad.
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I think writing and murmuring go together – or is that muttering 😉
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Haha! Cursing, more like.
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And yet, here you are! That your life turned this way is a boon to us😊
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Thank you! This is only slightly true… but true emotionally… somehow.
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Hard not to murmur sometimes. But, if not writing, maybe you would murmur that!
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No. If I couldn’t write, I’d be kvetching! 🙂
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Soft-spoken red … sigh… I adore this phrase!💖
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A murmuring wine. (As opposed to a whining murmur!) 🙂
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A brilliant take on Murmer, Charley! Love the allusion to REM, too!
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Thanks, Frank! Glad you enjoyed it.
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Very clever, Charley. I love the “soft-spoken red”.
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It’s a popular vintage, apparently.
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Nice use of the “magic word”. I am going to have to remember to call it that in the future.
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Words and wine are both fun to play with. Keep murmuring
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“sip this soft-spoken red”
the vivid imagery and gentleness of the flow of this poetry is a delight to the reading heart. 🙂
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This is a really interesting read for me as someone who has had health-related wrenches chucked into my life. But we all have wrenches in one form or another and then the path changes course, like it or not. The way I read it, to have good health might also be a wrench, which is a brand new, and kind of liberating way, to think about it. Of course I’m reading my own life into all this, but that’s another mark of good poetry. Love that you left it open to interpretation.
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I try to leave my poems open to reader’s thoughts. Then there are times I’m unaware how open I’ve left things. This is only partly autobiographical… but it occurred to me as I wrote this, how a potentially life-ending diagnosis like this might have added impetus to my life as a writer (instead placed on hold for too long). The diagnosis was real — I was 3 months old. It has never been detected since. I have determinedly NOT let that… or other bogus medical opinions… stop me from an active life. Now I have something to write about.
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Yes who knows, you could have been a John Keats type and then lived to quadruple his output. There is a writer, Chuck Wendig, who writes something like 6 books a year and it’s because the men in his family tend to die in their 40’s and he is in his 40’s. Talk about a sense of urgency!
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I’m not certain I would’ve ever been a Keats type. In my twenties I had little enough to say. That’s why I gave up writing for a while.
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I remember hitting that wall. I had stories where adventures began but there was no middle or end because I hadn’t lived any middles or ends.
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Exactly!
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Heartfelt poem.
I knew what you were alluding to…wine, musing, and writing …..
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A very clever route into this week’s prompt. Very nicely done.
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