Category Archives: National Poetry Month

Red, White, Blue

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Much
Too deep
Much too fast
You blazed red in
Betrayal’s fury

From
Tears that
blurred the sight
With lust’s white heat
You let yourself fall

So
Cold in
Broken-hearted
Blues of too much
And not enough

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As is now tradition for me, I open National Poetry Writing Month with the Arun.

A nonce poem created by friend and fellow blogger, GirlGriot, an Arun is a fifteen-line poem in three sets of five lines. Each set of five lines follows the same syllable structure: starting with one syllable and increasing by one syllable with each line. 1/2/3/4/5 — 3x. There are no other rhyme or structural requirements. Today, I follow the pattern she’s set, left aligned and un-rhymed.  As always, I will take a little poetic license, in future runs of the form.

National Poetry Month 2022 graphic

Self

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I remember a time when
Someone like I
Would never consider
Myself being worth anything, let alone everything
Funny how life can change a thing like that
As my self-worth, my self-care and love of self grows

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 30

First time ever completing thirty whole days of original poetry – YAY!🎊

I end National Poetry Month, keeping it short and simple, with my first Golden Shovel poem using the opening line of Sonnet 15 by William Shakespeare

The Golden Shovel form was created by Terrance Hayes in tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks. The rules are simple:

  • Take a line (or lines) from a poem you admire.
  • Use each word in the line (or lines) as the end word for each line in your poem.
  • If you take a single line with six words, your poem would be six lines long. If you take two lines and the first line has 19 words, and the next has 13 words your poem would be 32 lines long in total and so on…
  • Keep the end words in order of the original poem.
  • The new poem does not have to be about the same subject as the poem that offers the end words.
  • Give credit to the poet who originally wrote the line (or lines).

Some Shade of Blue

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I would need some time, to give it its due,
It’s a daunting thing you ask of me.
The seas are more than just some shade of blue

Oh, how would I render such a vibrant hue,
When seas reach the shore at dawn? At three?
I’d need some time, to give it its due.

In colors cleaved only with God’s imbue, 
This palette of mine must try to decree.
The seas are more than just some shade of blue.

There are whitecapped curls of waves to construe 
As they crash against the rocks prettily.
I’d need some time, to give it its due.

Certainly more time than you’d think it’s true. 
Shades vaster than the horizons to see.
Yes, I’d need some time, to give it it’s due.
The seas are more than just some shade of blue.

dVerse Poets Pub graphic
dVerse Poets Pub | Open Link Night

dVerse Poets Pub | Open Link Night

Today Lillian remodels as she tends the bar for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets.

Open Link Night where there are no prompts. Everyone can post ONE poem of their choosing. No particular format, topic, etc.. Post the poem you want.

Tonight I offer a Villanelle

Unmarked

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The spark that once set my soul alight
with fire and fight
I thought died in the embers of the long ago
killed slow
But a moment of the then returns to the now
and how
The desire for apathy crawls upon my skin
and sinks within
But I turn in tune, a marionette
who can’t forget
When words of honor marked needs
negated by dishonorable deeds
I am conjured by promises left unspoken
and now broken
In the end whose price is the one direly paid
for thoughts mislaid?
For once the Fates in their own twisted sense divine
it shall not be mine
And eventually, the pain subsides and the soul heals
from wounds surreal
Finally shelved to deal only with today’s realities
I welcome the banalities

When There Is No One There To See

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I’m imagining the you, the you you choose to be
when there is no one there to see

When the company is gone and you close the door,
are you the same person you were the moment before?

If you didn’t know company was coming by,
would left-over take-out be the only food supply?

Who are you? The you you choose to be,
when there is no one there to see.

If I open a closet, will dirty clothes fall from on high,
because when you said you last did laundry was a white lie?

Do you rage at a world you want to throttle
or silently drown your fears at the bottom of a bottle?

Tell me about the you, the you you choose to be
when there is no one there to see.

Do you blast your music because the beats make you glad?
Or simply to drown out the loneliness making you sad?

Do you put your dirty feet on the coffee table,
and run around nude just ’cause you’re able?

I want to know the you, the you you choose to be,
when there is no one there to see?

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 25 pondering who you are when no one is looking…

His Aura

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A young heart, a soul of ancient Torah
Strength to the power that is his aura

The slings and arrows of life untamed
Just slide from the plating of his aura

When my soul’s shards were jumbled about
Calm was found in the peace of his aura

Emotions tailored skin with cutlery
Vanish in the healing of his aura

He is candlelight in the deepest dark
It is the harmony of his aura

Those who turned the page to my new peace
Know the benevolence of his aura

And when asked what factor gives him his peace
States it’s a Raivenne, that is his aura

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 24 I’m trying a Ghazal

A Ghazal is a collection of two-line poems or couplets which follow six rules.

First – Each verse or couplet should be readable as an independent poem, which do not have to rely on the other verses, though the full ghazal has a theme – traditionally romantic or spiritual love and longing.

Second – Each line of the couplets must have the same meter. All the lines in one ghazal must have the same meter.

Third – All of the couplet verses must end with the same refrain, which could be a word or a phrase.

Fourth – The words before the refrain phrase must rhyme.

Fifth – The beginning couplet must repeat the refrain word or phrase in both lines.

Sixth – The final couplet must reference the poet’s name, or alias and sometimes a derivation of the meaning of the poet’s name. This was a traditional way for the poet to sign, or to affix his or her mark upon the work

Somehow

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Somehow the thought of you . . .

Rushed in with a swiftness that knocked me to my knees,
Praying for a release quick in coming

Somehow the look from you . . .

Is a spark that quickly quietly – ignites,
A hot match tossed onto dry underbrush

Somehow the heart of you . . .

Peeked out one sunset,
Between the bites of peach cobbler and sips of mimosa

It lingered just long enough,

To cause my soul to sigh

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 24 has me reminiscing the first spark.

In Search of Lucidity

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I wake each morn and reach for you
Habit your death cannot control
The days they past as days will do
But it’s still night within my soul

It sears to realize how much
Our spirits were so intertwined
And now bereft of half of such
I’ve no clue what’s been redefined

Waiting to see on the morrow
Will El Sol keep my company
Needing out of this deep sorrow
That holds tight the darkness in me

In solitary soliloquy
I look for lucidity

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 23 finds me trying my hand at a Pushkin Sonnet

The Pushkin Sonnet has fourteen lines, with no set meter. The rhyme scheme is divided into one of the two following stanza formats:

abab ccdd effe gg or abab ccdd eff egg

Memories for Winter

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The dying give voice, Spring brings forth new blooms
In the day to day of life, Thriving on summer’s promise
When we lose our joy, Sometimes the boughs break
The soul is where we die first, So frail in the autumn’s wind
Long before our cold body, Leaves memories for winter

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 22 gives me a Super Tanka

The Tanka is the name of an ancient form of Japanese poetry. Tanka are 31-syllable poems that have been the most popular form of poetry in Japan for at least 1300 years. In Japan, the Tanka is usually written as a straight line of characters, but in English and other Western languages, it is usually divided into five lines, with a syllable count of 5-7-5-7-7.

The key to the Super Tanka form is that it is two Tanka side-by-side. Each can be read independently, but must work together as a whole, in the end creating three works. The more different in idea of one Tanka from the other, the better.

Emotional Sky

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I once defined my emotional sky as the darkest of cloud
Allowed its tendrils to snake its way through
True to my heart’s winding deep
Steep was the choice, but it was mine to make
Forsake all I’ve that I have ever known
Grown to believe that it was all I should be

Empty

Thirsty for that which it did not know
So I made a new choice
Rejoice! Became my mantra for each sunrise
Surprised myself, my mate, my brothers
Others as I the shed the dark cumulus
Luminous is how I now define my emotional sky

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 21 in a mood for a Rime Enchainée