Today’s prompt is to write a poem responding to a favourite poem by another poet. I chose In The Stump Of The Old Tree by Hugh Sykes Davies. You can read it here: https://allpoetry.com/-In-the-stump-of-the-old-tree…-

In the heart of an old poem, where the words are frayed like old lace, there is a dark corner where meaning gathers, and a sound pecks out like the sharp beak of a bird.  But do not look too closely, because

In the heart of old poems, where the words fray like old lace, there are dark corners where meaning gathers, and sounds peck out like sharp beaks, and questions beckon you like a trap.  But do not look too closely, because

In the hearts of old poems with frayed words like old lace, pecked out sounds sharp like beaks and questions like a trap, there are dark corners where meaning gathers, and thoughts grow like fungus on rotting wood, reaching out to you with long white fingers.  But do not look too closely, because

In the hearts of frayed poems with old words like lace there are dark corners of meaning and questions like traps, and fungus thoughts that grow towards you with white fingers from the rotten wood of an old tree, the arm of a man waits for you.  But do not look too closely, because

In the hearts of old poems where the frayed words have become like lace and the sounds peck out like sharp beaks in the dark corners of fungus and rotten wood, there are thoughts like traps and you can read them, and if you read them you will never be able to forget them.