Poem: "Gökotta"
This is the linkback perk for the March 6, 2019 Poetry Fishbowl. It was originally hosted by DW user Dialecticdreamer. It was written outside the regular prompt calls. It was inspired by a square in my 12-31-18 card for the Untranslatable Words Bingo Fest.
Gökotta (Swedish): To wake up early in the morning with the purpose of going outside to hear the first birds sing
Gökotta
In the morning, Bergliot rises
before the sun in search of inspiration.
She goes outside to sit in the garden
by the poppies and the peonies,
her chair as red as poppy petals,
her dress the deep green of leaves.
Bergliot listens as the first birds
wake with the sun and begin to sing,
feeling their way from sleep to song.
She listens to them all morning,
swaying in time to their songs.
By afternoon, she goes back inside
and picks up her flute, with a new tune
finding its way from her lips to her fingertips.
When Bergliot visits the cities and performs
for coins in the market squares, the men
ask where she gets her inspiration.
"Gökotta," she tells them, but
they are too busy to get up early
just to hear the birds sing.
* * *
Notes:
Bergliot (Norwegian: "rescue light") -- a young woman with long chestnut hair, usually braided up in a crown. She is a musician and composer, playing the flute among other instruments. She likes to get up early in the morning for inspiration.
Outsider from Norway.
Introduced in "Gökotta." (CL: "Summer in Sundborn")