Tag: poem

Faith · Grief · poetry · Random Photo Monday

When he died

Sally12 Comments

When he died,
Oh, I tried
To decide

What came next —
So perplexed.
The subtext

Of my grief,
My belief,
Brought relief

This is my submission for the W3 Challenge this week:

  • Theme: The bittersweet, painful, or unsettling aspects of the past and its hold on the present;
    • Optional Challenge: Use imagery of shadows, cracks, or reflections to add depth to the theme;
  • Form: A “square” (e.g., 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, or any other pattern you choose);
    • “Rows” represent stanzas;
    • “Columns” represent the number of lines in each stanza;
      • For example: 3×3 = 3 stanzas of 3 lines each; and 4×4 = 4 stanzas of 4 lines each.

The idea of a “square” poem intrigued me. I wrote 3 stanzas of 3 lines each. I went a step further, though, and made each line 3 syllables — does that make it a cube?

poetry · Writing

Writer’s Dice (Sort of)

Sally5 Comments
Moments, Grateful, Grandkid, Free

Well, I just wrote a long post of gratitude yesterday and I saw two of my grandchildren today. I’m going to take that “FREE” cube and run with it.

This coming week, on Thursday, we’re having a Robert Burns celebration as part of our senior program. I’m excited and terribly anxious. I ordered haggis for it, then came into work one morning last week to see the box of haggis sitting beside the front desk. It had arrived after I left the previous day. It was clearly labeled, “PERISHABLE. REFRIGERATE IMMEDIATELY.” But there it sat in the lobby.

I was so upset that I couldn’t even open the box, so one of the custodians did it for me. Everything was still frozen inside. It was packed in styrofoam and ice packs. I’m still amazed that it was so cold.

Today, though, I worked on my own version of “To a Mouse” which I may share at the Burns event. In Robert Burns’ version, he’s apologetic for disturbing a mouse’s nest while plowing. I am slightly less kind. The first two lines are all Rabbie Burns’. The rest are mine.

Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie
Oh, what a panic’s in thy breastie!
I ken, I ken — ye smelt the yeastie
in discarded bread
But would it be too much to ask ye
go somewhere else instead

Ye leave yer jobbies* and I find them
On the counter, near a bread crumb
Or by the garbage, where ye oft come
to find a treat or two
I recognize where jobbies come from
they cause me to say “Ewww!”

Today I grant ye sweet release**
Across the street — and wish ye peace
Instead of plotting yer decease
I will allow ye live
May yer domestic tribe decrease
Today’s nibblin’s I forgive

But tomorrow, oh tomorrow
I may wish ye endless sorrow
Ye come into my home and borrow
That which is nae yers
Mousetraps are set those places ye go
BAM SNAP! – yes, death occurs

*Jobbie is a Scottish term for excrement.

** Yes, I release mice that are alive across the street in our compost pile.

poetry

Phoenix

Sally16 Comments

(Ph)lying up higher and higher
Hole-ness comes amidst the fire
Once upon a time, to cope
Every child learned the myth, the trope
New the stories of death, loss, hope
Icarus failed and fell to earth
xineohP rose from ashes in rebirth

This week on W3 the poet of the week (PoW) Sarah David challenged us to write a poem of up to 12 lines on the theme of hope or renewal. Poets can use this image (or another one) of a phoenix for inspiration if they like.

I decided to write an Acrostic, but, darn it all, the words wouldn’t cooperate. If Phoenix can begin with a ph, I gave flying permission to do the same. And that wholeness of life rising from ashes? Well, the w just wouldn’t work! New/knew — whatever. And X? Fuhgeddaboudit!

It’s a quirky poem, I admit.

poetry

Elbowroom

Sally8 Comments

Go into a crowd
The hustle-bustle-jostle
Of people – no – not for me

Sit beside a lake
Alone – a loon dives for fish
Eagle circles high – I sigh

This is my submission for the W3 prompt this week. POW Suzanne challenged us to write a poem in a Japanese form with the theme of Yutori — a Japanese word that means, among other things, elbowroom.

I have to confess that I don’t really feel confident about Japanese forms, so I read through the book: Japanese Poetry Forms by James P. Wagner (Ishwa) and Nick Hale that Suzanne included and settled on The Sedoka. Here’s the explanation of the form:

The Sedoka
Sometimes known as a whirling head poem is
similar to a later form of Japanese poetry called the
mondo from the Zen practice of rapid question-answer
between a master and a student or, more frequently,
between two lovers. Often the answer would be in
nonverbal form such as pointing to a natural object.
The sedoka can often be considered the combination of
two or three katuata. A sedoka is written by only 1
poet and rather than question-answer, the 2 stanzas are
often parallels, sometimes taking the form of an
internal dialogue or contemplative dilemma. This verse
can be found as far back as the 6th century.
The sedoka is:
 2 stanzas of 3 lines each
 19 syllables or less
 often 5-7-7, sometimes 5-7-5 is used for each
stanza.
 the stanzas should be parallel to each other, or
in some ways opposites without being directly
contradictory.

You can see that I am a little partial to the Celtic forms that like internal rhyme and alliteration.

poetry

A Motionless Bird

Sally10 Comments

What would you do?
He picked up the bird, threw it high
What would you do?
’twas only stunned but now it flew!
And as it climbed into the sky
My friend breathed out a little sigh
What would you do?

This is my response to the W3 prompt. It’s based on a story a friend told me. He had seen the bird crash into something and was motionless in a field. He could see it was still alive though.

The challenge was to write a rondelet. The rondelet contains a single septet (a verse of seven lines); a refrain; a strict rhyme scheme; and a distinct meter pattern. This is the basic structure:

  • Line 1: A—four syllables (refrain)
  • Line 2: b—eight syllables
  • Line 3: A—repeat of line one (refrain)
  • Line 4: a—eight syllables
  • Line 5: b—eight syllables
  • Line 6: b—eight syllables
  • Line 7: A—repeat of line one (refrain)

The refrained lines should contain the same words, however substitution or different use of punctuation on the lines has been common.

poetry

Strength

Sally2 Comments

Line: Point A to B
≠ strength. Conversely
Circle: pointless and centered

The W3 challenge this week was to write either 1) a haiku, 2) a tanka, or 3) a senryu and use the word “strength” in it.

I looked up senryu because I didn’t know what it was. “The senryu is a three-line Japanese poetic form that focuses on human nature, generally with an ironic or darkly comedic edge.” (from Masterclass) It has 17 syllables, like a haiku, but I gave up on 5-7-5. Also, I decided that ≠ is one syllable. Of course, it’s not.

This may not seem human nature-ish, and it isn’t funny, but I had read something the other day that said Jesus drew circles, not lines. It stuck with me.

A bully draws lines in the sand and taunts those on the other side. Love includes them. There’s my human nature angle. (Angle — sheesh — I’ve got geometry on the brain!)

Note to David: I’m not submitting this to the W3 because it’s really not in keeping with the rules of the challenge. It was inspired by the challenge, but not a senryu.

poetry

Reflections on the Moon

Sally11 Comments

That crescent
Half-hidden, luminescent
Resting on clouds in un-stark
Dark

Moon inspires
Because it only requires
Mass gravity sun to be
Free

It’s waxing
Now – growing, growing. Maxing
At full. Sun reflected bright
Light

Such beauty
The moon is never snooty!
It brings delight to the sky
[sigh]

My desire —
Be like the moon and conspire
To make people smile when they see
Me

This is my contribution to the W3 prompt this week. This week’s Poet of the Week, Sheila Bair, challenged us to write a poem exactly 64 words in length that incorporates the words “light” and “dark”.

Done. This is a Celtic forms, Deibide Baise Fri Toin (don’t ask me to pronounce it), an Irish form with an aabb rhyme scheme and syllable count of 3-7-7-1 for each stanza. The first two lines rhyme on a 2 syllable word and the last two lines rhyme on one syllable..

I LOVE the moon. I really do. More than once I have thought about the fact that when we see the moon, we are actually seeing the sun’s reflection. Of course that begs the question — what am I reflecting? Dear God, let me reflect things that bring joy to others.

poetry

Two Cats

Sally10 Comments

Two cats share an old chair by the woodstove
An orange tabby and a calico
They stretch and bask, sometimes paws interwove
One wakes and grooms the other, licking slow

They eat their food together from a bowl
Or crouch together watching some poor bird
Sometimes they argue ’bout who gets the mole
Mostly they don’t care who gets the last word

Companions would be an inadequate
Description for this cat-relationship
So bonded in a way that’s not clearcut
Expressing joy wtih purr and lick and nip

They are true friends — someone with whom they can
Just be themselves without ulterior plan

This is my submission for the W3 prompt this week: write a sonnet on the theme of friendship.

poetry

Early Morning

Sally15 Comments

The howling
Ah-roo yip, yip (no growling)
Wakes me. Or does it? So near!
Hear?

And owling
hoo-HOO hoo-HOO (no growling)
Out my window, I hear life
Rife

With wildness
Foxes scream – WRAAAAGH! – no mildness
(Or growling) Look at the dark!
Hark!

It’s early
But day is alive, surly
Lonely, looking, using sound
Found

In darkness
Life not visible, starkness
Yet teeming, streaming. New day —
Yay!

This is my response to this week’s W3. POW Lesley Scoble challenged us to: Create a poetic scene, based on this imagery: It is early morning. You get out of bed and go to the window.

Here’s the thing, though — I go to work at 5 AM, so I get up at 3:30 AM. When I get out of bed and look out the window, I’m mostly looking at darkness. Or the moon. I have written a poem or two about the moon.

For this, though, my getting-out-of-bed moments of late are full of sounds, so I wrote about them.

The coyotes have been so active and loud. And the owls. Fortunately, I don’t heard the fox scream often, but I did the other morning, as I lay in bed thinking about getting up.

Morning — even early early morning when it is still dark — is my favorite time of day.

The poetic form is an unpronounceable Irish form: Deibide Baise Fri Toin. Quatrains. 3-7-7-1 syllables. Rhyme scheme aabb: lines 1 and 2 rhyme on two syllables, lines 3 and 4 rhyme on one.

Blather · poetry

Two Roads — FWIW

Sally5 Comments

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
(I should be telling this with a sigh)
Stood at that fork and took it
Hey Yogi! Hey Raffi!
Look it! Look it! Look it!
You know what came next?
(What came next?)
A knife and spoon!
(clink, clink)
So I kept on walking down the road
With a fork-knife-spoon as my load

On Saturday I was supposed to go to a poetry reading. Mind you, I have done that only once before in my life and it was a terrifying experience. Thankfully an excuse presented itself and I bowed out. The friend who had invited me offered to read my poems for me. I gave her two — neither of which had been the poem I planned to read.

She messaged me later, telling me that the poems were well-received, that I was a rare talent.

To prove her wrong, I’m going to go ahead and publish last week’s tripe, my response to the W3 prompt. The POW gave a lovely challenge: to use 1-2 lines from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.”

Unfortunately Yogi Berra infiltrated my brain regarding that poem. Yogi once said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” It’s one of many Yogi-isms for which he is famous. Like, “It ain’t over, ’til it’s over,” and “You can observe a lot by watching.”

Suddenly, too, while writing, I was doing battle with Raffi, who kept singing at me (in my head) about a time he went for a walk.

Sheesh.

Sometimes the muses either just aren’t there or are a couple of clowns.

Anyone else struggle with this?