rolling docks, found poem by Sheikha A. (F. Scott Fitzgerald Birthday Bash)

rolling docks
by Sheikha A.

in the green light, the orgastic future that year
somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond
I walked a blue lawn lined with purple clovers

the world unknown in the way of a thing known
on the brooding despairs of your paths, I walked
in the green light, the orgastic future that year

the dark fields heaved of life where she grew
where my name would become borne by the air
I walked a blue lawn lined with purple clovers

she shined in disjointed ways of a broken star
the docks rolled out luring me into her world
in the green light, the orgastic future that year

I beat my boats to fly across unlimited waters
to where my heart on her sleeves would bloom
I walked a blue lawn lined with purple clovers

each night would command me to labour on
where my youthful hope flared, I walked on
in the green light, the orgastic future that year
somewhere back in the vast obscurity beyond

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: There isn’t a single line that I would have not liked to use from the entire book, because The Great Gatsby is like passages of one memorable line after another. But I limited myself to the last paragraphs of the book and decided to do a found villanelle form – I had to literally ‘beat my boats’ on this to live up to Gatsby and his magnificent aura. The character Gatsby himself is all poetry – I think I’m happy I also limited myself to the 19 lines that is the prerequisite of a villanelle, otherwise I’d have beat on writing limitlessly about him. I realized Daisy can never be removed from Gatsby even in writing merely about Gatsby, and that is the beauty of his poetics – his character – that wore the identity of Daisy as his own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sheikha A. currently lives in Karachi, Pakistan after having moved from the United Arab Emirates and believes the transition has definitely stimulated a different tunnel of thought. She is the author of a short poetry collection titled Spaced [Hammer and Anvil Books, 2013]. Her work appears in numerous publications and anthologies, and she hopes for her poetry to be read and discussed widely. She also edits poetry for eFiction India. Her poems can be tracked via her blog sheikha82.wordpress.com.