Tuesday, January 7, 2014

The Prodigal Son

                                                                                           Attribution: Name Invalid
Image: A Homeless
Source: Wikimedia Commons (here)

The 9 words:
Presentable, Tramping, Specimen, SleekBygone
Hollow, Upright, Seething, Groomed

The son was last heard tramping in lost frontiers
Somewhere hitch-hiking with seedy friends
His was a sad picture of a dream gone awry
Groomed from the cradle in trappings of wealth
Upright and presentable when he reached of age
Good upbringing and of Ivy League specimen
He was to head the thriving organization

Managed of astute business acumen tendencies
Founded by his grandfather, nurtured by his father
He was only expected to provide corporate leadership
For the prosperous and successful conglomerate

It now sounded hollow of unbridled extravagance
Reckless in his ways typical of the third generation
Lavish in his taste a sleek spendthrift squandering
Bygone of days unrestrained and wasteful
Seething with the uncanny desire to impress
Goaded on by the bevy of beauties trailing

His father had designs of the son to be back
With sheer tenacity he had overcome all odds
He steered back the outfit from the brink of disaster

Will the son come back to answer the call?

Written for grapeling's hosting at Real Toads where we are to choose
9 words taken from DH Lawrence's sources and shared with
d'Verse's OpenLinkNIght week #127

21 comments:

  1. i was a prodigal...they can come back..it takes some humbling...on both sides..a realization there are some things more important than others....

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  2. Sometimes they can come back indeed, not sure many do though

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  3. I have a prodigal son and a daughter ( they prefer not to have a mother)
    Wonderful piece of poetry and great reading.

    Yvonne.

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  4. No greater story than the overwhelming love of the father for the prodigal. Wonderful poem from the heart

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  5. Okay, so the poem was fantastic. The fact that you also used the 9 word challenge makes it even better. I was a prodigal daughter...it took me many years to come home...but I'm home now. And I wouldn't be anywhere else.

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  6. I hope the son comes back. Sometimes that is all a person can do....HOPE.

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  7. You've given fresh voice to the tale of the prodigal son. The process and path each must follow often differs from that which parents envision. You show us that.

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  8. Hopefully the father will be successful ~ I like the modern take Hank as 3rd generation kids don't appreciate the hard work and sacrifices of their ancestors ~

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  9. Hopefully he sees the light and comes back

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  10. I was on my own young also



    ALOHA from Honolulu
    Comfort Spiral
    > < } } ( ° >

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  11. Hopefully, the son will return home...

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  12. Such a familiar story and so many lessons to learn from it...very well expressed Hank . Enjoyed this one a lot.

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  13. Very nice use of the prompt words, Hank.
    I labored along with your prodigal offspring,
    a lot of us have gone through several of
    these stages and still made a good life.

    I wrote a limerick for the third set,
    Jim's poem for Personal Challenge # 1 for 2014
    ..

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  14. Will he? Interesting application of the prodigal son story to that third generation that leaves and wastes.

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  15. This is a wonderful use of the word pool, Hank. I can see you had a story you wished to tell, and I am thrilled to see Lawrence's words put to excellent use in your poem.

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  16. A fine pen, Hank, and a tale with a moral. ~

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  17. Your first stanza grabbed my attention. Lots of truth in this poem. Enjoyed reading it, Hank. Honestly, I don't think I will forget it, either.

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  18. Nice piece, Hank--and as you see, it resonates with so many. Oddly, though we do not think about it much, we are all third generations of some family or other, if we have grandparents; it's just the privileged few who are born into a legacy that face the dilemma you describe so aptly. You pick your friends, not your family--and too often estrangement runs rampant.

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  19. so many people hurting... maybe if everyone would just spend time with one some of the problems would be solved

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  20. Real life is often not a happy ending… Will he? Nice to leave it open like that (as you can see I am WAY behind in commenting).

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