80. Catherin J Pascal Dunk's "forlorn", inviting Catia Castrucci with flowers

forlorn

forlorn, like those dead roses Coles
daren’t discount.

forlorn. the very word is like a bell.¹
a wandering
between worlds.²

Photo by Catherin J Pascal Dunk 2025.

1. The second stanza is cento-esque. This line is from John Keats' Ode to a Nightingale (1820, stanza 8):
   
   Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
            To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
    ↩︎
2. I'm referring here to Matthew Arnold's Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse (1855, lines 82/83):
   
   Wandering between two worlds, one dead
   one powerless to be born.
   
   Line 85 includes the word 'forlorn'.