07 May 2025

Ruin / Ruins


Photo : Sumana Roy

Our theme is Ruin / Ruins today.

Ruins are portals to take you to another time. We are often awestruck at the stupendous past, visualizing those invisible hands of Time, Nature or Humans that might have worked to bring them to us in their current state.
Ruins effectively remind us of the ancient Roman Tradition known as Memento Mori, meaning ‘remember you must die.’ The tradition involved a slave whispering the phrase in the ear of a triumphant Roman General during a military victory parade. Ruins are an insistent reminder of the passage of time, temporality, invoking the themes of decline and loss.

The slow process of decaying, erosion that characterized the relics of antiquity is now at odds with the almost instantaneous, quick disappearance of modern ruins.

Ruins Of A Great House byDerek Walcott

I recently read in an online article that a newly bought, small abandoned house in Detroit was dismantled by its new artist owner and placed as an exhibit at the 2016 Rotterdam art fair to show its ‘authentically’ decayed state to be seen as a testament to the precarious condition of Detroit.

The present era is steeped in an extravagant ruination through disastrous wars, climate change etc.

You might use the word as a verb too to show the word’s might in our present day to day life.

              

Please link one poem that is your response to the material of this prompt. When you link your poem please visit other links in the spirit of the community




19 comments:

  1. Thanks for the inspiration, Sumana. I could have written a poem about myself for this, come to think of it. LOL.

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    1. That would be interesting Sherry. :D The poem you've shared is a beauty too.

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    2. It would be funny, at least. Smiles.

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  2. Hello friends. Welcome to another week of poetry writing. I love all the poems already shared and now looking forward to reading more.

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  3. That article is 9 years old. My city is on the rise. DETROIT VS. EVERYBODY. >:-(

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    1. As I was preparing this prompt that article came to my notice and I was so shocked that I decided to mention the incident. I am so glad that we got to hear your powerful voice in your poem today Shay. Thank you.

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  4. I found the prompt thanks to Kim's poem (I subscribe to her blog) and thought I'd share a poem about one of the ruins visible from my croft in north-east Scotland. I'm fortunate to live opposite a stone circle, within sight of the ruins of a Norman tower house set amidst an ancient hill fort, and to have my very own ruined cottage out the back. You might say I have a ruinous life!

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    1. I didn't intend to be anonymous. Apologies.

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    2. Stonhead, I envy your location!! And I loved the idea of a 'ruinous life.'

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    3. Thank you so much for your amazing poem Dennis. Nice to see you.

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  5. A wonderful and timely prompt, Sumana!

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  6. I really like this unique prompt, Sumana!

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  7. Hello, everyone, Nick here from "Intelliblog". Good to have found you again! Thank you for the prompt, Sumana.

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    1. How nice to see you again Nick! And thanks for joining us.

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  8. I finally wrote a response, rather than pulling a poem from my archive (the link posted under Dennis). And yes, too late but I've been working 12-hour shifts. Actually, it's an indirect response as it was Rall's short forms that gave me the idea for my haiku. It doesn't actually state ruin, but it is about ruin.

    https://stoneheadcroft.com/2025/05/12/no-gods-in-the-song/

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