Roberta Writes – d’Verse: Positivity through negation #poetry

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Bjorn is the host of this interesting prompt to use negation in poetry. You can join in here: https://dversepoets.com/2025/01/23/meet-the-bar-positively-through-negation/

You can read Bjorn’s poem here: https://brudberg.me/2025/01/23/what-it-is/

I have made an attempt based on how I understood this prompt. If you don’t like spiders STOP here.

I used a quote from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream which reflects spiders in a negative light. I have then flipped this idea in the second half of the poem.

In case you’ve forgotten, Puck, the mischievous servant to the fairy king in this play, is tasked with anointing Titania’s eyelids with the juice from a flower which will serve as a magic potion.

The Weaver

I scrabble backwards

Scrubbing shreds of sticky web

From my mouth and eyes

My Midsummer Night’s Dream forest walk

In tatters, just like the spider web

“Weaving spiders come not here

Hence, you long legged spiders, hence”

I invoke the charm of protection

From venomous arachnids

Out of the corner of my eye

I see a spectacular creation

A complex structure of threads

Glimmering in the golden light

Diamond-like rain drops clinging

At intervals along each lengthily seam

At the centre, sits the weaver

Slender red legs spread out

Around a distinctly marked abdomen

Like a queen on her throne

She eagerly awaits a banquet

Is her beauty real, or have I been bewitched

By magical floral juice upon my eyelids

“Tell me Puck? Is this vision real?

Or are you making mischief

With your enchanted love potion?”

Picture caption: Orb spider in its full web in the forest.
Picture caption: Close up of an orb spider in its web.

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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93 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – d’Verse: Positivity through negation #poetry”

  12. Oh what a charming poem, Robbie! We may unexpectedly glimpse an enchantment if we but change our perspective. Love the telling details and allusions in your poem, and the lovely photos.Spider’s webs really are “spectacular creations.”

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  13. a very interesting poem choice, Robbie. I love the web and the odd looking spider. We have webs like that here that are made by large garden spiders or what some call writing spideres! Well done.

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      1. Yes I agree it is their look. We have orb weavers and they are very big, like half a hand, and bright yellow and black. They look scary but they are harmless and creates large impressive webs.

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  20. I can’t understand why people are afraid of spiders. They are (at least, those here in the UK) are harmless, and in fact help us get rid of many much nastier creatures. Like flies, that carry disease. I, too find them fascinating, and many are beautifully marked.

    Your poem is cleverly done. Thanks for sharing.

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  21. Absolutely enjoyed thr poem. Woe..you were in the zone with this piece, Robbie.
    Spiders..large Spiders freak me out.
    Saw a handler with a giant tarantula once..had the creeps for a few days afterward.

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  28. The orb photos are fascinating, beautiful in their own unique way. I love looking at webs in the early morning after a frost …. oh, by the way .. your poem is equally fascinating.

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  34. I am so glad I read your poem in the morning instead of at night because I would have had nightmares of spiders attacking me all night. I hope that zoomed in picture was taken from afar. I never would get that close to a web. *shivers* All that being released, your poem was beautiful, Robbie, despite its subject.

    Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
    http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com

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  36. A fabulous write, Robbie! Adoetry!

    As I’m reading posts backwards, you may be reading my comments backwards.

    SO

    Adoetry. (word I made up, described in another comment)

    A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream is one of my fave Shakespearean plays. Puck is a stand out character in literature.

    Terrific post, thank you!

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