Category Archives: National Poetry Month

Pages Left To Turn

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Waiting for the day when I was too old to scold
Not knowing such a time would never come my way
My younger years once spent being reckless and bold
Those pages burned away in such furious blaze
In fantasia that thirty is considered old
Oh how the numbers changed as I added on days
Now I’m the one telling, instead of being told
Back then are not the words I’d thought so soon to say

Now I wonder if I will reach a point of sage
To look back upon the times of my days before
Some tales I have told in this pen and pixeled stage
Some tales are only known in memory to store
Should older me still have plenty of time to gauge
This life I’ll live from babe to days of hoar
I’ll fill these lines with joy before I turn the page
‘Till the pages left for me to turn are no more

My dossier holds Raivenne-lations nevermore

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Today I have something of a trifecta:

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1. At dVerse Lillian challenges us to create a poem that includes the word fantasia, phantasia, or fantasy. The word can be used in the title or the body of the poem itself.

dVerse Poets Pub | Poetics – Fantasia

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2. At Real Toads Kerry provides us the side inspiration of writing about living through the years.

Real Toads | Open Platform Tuesday

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3. National Poetry Writing Month – Day 12

It is still NaPoWriMo and today’s form is: The  Lucubration

The Lucubration is a form by Amanda J. Norton. It has two octave (eight line) stanzas, followed by a single line for 17 lines all together.

It has a rhyme scheme of abababab cdcdcdcd d.

The poem’s title must be a 5 syllable title. The two octave stanzas have 12 syllables per line. The final line must be 12 syllables in only 5 words and in italics.

In Deep Repose

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Dressed in Luna’s glow
Fingers following her thoughts
Loving in deepest repose
Where Sol cannot see

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 10

The Jue Ju

This Chinese style poetry is one of the oldest of the Chinese patterns and in the 3rd century AD the Jue Ju was very popular. Jue ju meaning curtailed or frustrated verse, does not aim to tell a story, but to create a mood. Often carrying “suggestively erotic themes” it does in the most frugal way imaginable, and with a high tone.

A jue ju is only four lines of five or seven syllables each where lines should be same length and is
often erotic.

Too Early

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With vernal equinox comes joy
I smile at the new buds it brings
Beauty to see walking the park
Belies the chill in sharp employ
I’m not ready to feel such sting
Much too early for autumn’s bark

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Walking in Central Park felt more like October than April.

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 9

Today I bring an Italian Sestet

The original version of the Italian Sestet had no set meter, but after Spenser introduced it into England, eventually the poets there began to use iambic tetrameter or pentameter.
The rhyme pattern example is as follows (Using iambic tetrameter)

Sedusa Medusa

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Be silent with me, seek
The passion in my stare
For what you will find there
Is not meant for the weak
And surely not the meek
But only if you dare

Aye, come closer a pace
Spy the twists of my curls
How they move how thy swirl
Reveals the smile on my face
Knowing you’re trapped in place
Stone cold within my lair

Too late to make a fuss
Oh et tu Perseus?

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 8

Today I have with Medusa’s vexing hex in the form of  a Hex Sonnetta.

The Hex Sonnetta, created by Andrea Dietrich, consists of two six-line stanzas and a finishing rhyming couplet with the following set of rules:

Meter: Iambic Trimeter
Rhyme Scheme: a/bb/aa/b c/dd/cc/d ee

 

A Solo Sail

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She’s lived her life in a fish bowl
Always under another’s gaze
Done as was told year after year
And lost her self in small degrees

She looks back on her once young days
From this view now like tales of yore
When she once had a ‘joie de vie”
Now social mores fill her with fears

She grew up from a girl dirt poor
”Oh good girls don’t” was all she learned
Self taught to yield to make her way
Through ranks of yacht society

But decades passed by all she yearned
Daughter, lover, wife and mother
She dutifully played her role
Her wants pushed to another day

She stifles one, then another
Of yawns that had become the rote
Until she saw yards of bright sails
Unfurl and it just grabbed her soul

Decided she will sail a boat
All have their time and hers was now
“She’ll turn yellow once hands hit helm”
They laughed, for ywis she would fail

But she laughs last standing on bow
As salty winds blow through her hair
She sails on terms all of her own
The thrill of it near overwhelms

Sees horizon and thinks “to there”
For destination’s not the goal
Flying solo upon the seas
This moment hers and hers alone

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Written for today’s
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Real Toads Prompt for Today: In the Footsteps of the Suffragettes

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 8

For The Love of Persephone

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First day of spring–
I keep thinking about
The end of autumn.
Matsuo Basho – First day of spring

Lo, how she trembled that first day
Flowers grew where she tread
To quickly die as she walked away
An incongruous sight for the dead
Even Charon was saddened to bring
To the damned, such a beautiful thing
Nor did she bother pretending to resist
When her first earthly return, Demeter insists
For above the living do sing
First day of spring

Years pass and a rapport twixt us grew
I had a golden circlet woven for her as balm
A token of my love as our time to part was due
Adorned with flames and a pomegranate charm
She laughs and I thought I felt love sprout
Yet she left it on our bed with a pout
A hope had glimmered
But her eyes shimmered
It is in the doubt
I keep thinking about

The underworld was hell anew in her wake
Yet the surprise was mine upon her return
To learn her leaving it was not mistake
But to remind me that her love in turn does burn
Now laden with eternities under the sun
From first bud to last leaf it compares to none
For she now returns without regret
To lay claim to me, her love, and the bracelet
Aye, my love, my life always comes
The end of autumn

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Today at Real Toads, Susie prompts us with “bracelet” as inspiration. Basho’s classic haiku brings to mind Hades longing for Persephone.

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 7

Today as I continue through the alphabet of poetry forms this month I reach the letter G, and my favorite poetry form, the Glosa.

Those Things That Are Expected

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One
Day
Perhaps
When I’m sage
The old rocking chair
May have a place in my life when
I have gray hairs and the wrinkles aplenty you know
Those things that are expected then
Once I reach that stage
When I’m more
At still
Yeah
But
But
Right now
It is such
A long way off from
Those things that are expected then
For they most certainly do not apply to me now
Wherein the only things that rock
Are my jewelry
My music
And of
Course
Me

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 6

Today’s form adds up to the Fibonacci Spiral

The Fibonacci Poem, or Fib Poem for short, is a single stanza poem based on the first 7 numbers of the Fibonacci sequence 1,1,2,3,5,8,13. The first and second lines are one syllable, the third line two syllables, the fourth line three syllables and so forth following the Fibonacci sequence. It traditionally ends at seven lines (13 syllables), but some have taken it longer following the sequence.

The Fibonacci Spiral poem is a more structured poem with two stanzas.

The 1st stanza has 13 lines, the 2nd stanza has 12 lines. The last line of your first stanza is repeated to become the first line of your second stanza with no gap between stanzas. Repeat the syllable count to form the spiral for a total 25 lines altogether. If this confuses you just look below.

The syllable counts must be as follows:

stanza 1
1st line – 1 syllable
2nd line – 1 syllable
3rd line – 2 syllables
4th line -3 syllables
5th line -5 syllables
6th line -8 syllables
7th line -13 syllables
8th line -8 syllables
9th line -5 syllables
10th line – 3 syllables
11th line – 2 syllables
12th line – 1 syllable (word must be at least 4 letters)
13th line – 1 syllable
stanza 2 (remember there is no space between the two stanza)
14th line -1 syllables
15th line -2 syllables
16th line -3 syllables
17th line -5 syllables
18th line -8 syllables
19th line -13 syllables
20th line -8 syllables
21st line -5 syllables
22nd line – 3 syllables
23rd line – 2 syllables
24th line – 1 syllable
25th line – 1 syllable

The poem should be Centered.

The Sun Comes Out Today

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The sun comes out today
Sun after so much rain
Comes soft as sweet refrain
Out in its warmth I’ll play
Today I’ll feel no pain

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The above is some serious wishing thinking on my part. The sun is shining, but it is a cold day out there today. My face hurts.  It’s April, my face should not hurt because of wind and cold.  Get your act together Demeter!

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 5

Today I try out the Emmett form.

The Emmett has 2 rules:

1.The first line of the Emmett is five WORDS long. Each word of the first line becomes the first word of the following lines. So the second word in line one becomes the first word of line two, the third word becomes the first word of line three, etc.

2. To make things a little more complex the Emmett has a rhyme scheme of a,b,b,a,b.

There are no other restrictions on meter or line length.

The Last Hurrah

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Sometimes it does snow in April
Ol’ Man Winter exerts his will
With the March lion he’s allied
Our calendar they’ll not abide
The masses seem most mortified
That snow would deign to fall outside
Demeter smiles in mock deride
As Persephone is by her side
For his blustering’s not bona fide
And that lion runs at the lamb’s chide
It’s the last hurrah until autumn’s chill
I laugh as the scant snowflakes spill

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National Poetry Writing Month – Day 4

Real Toads Challenge: Nature Poetry

Today’s form: Duo-Rhyme (12 line)

The Duo-rhyme, is a 10 or 12-line poem, with the first two and last two lines having the same rhyme scheme, and the center of the poem (lines #3 through #8 or #10) having their own separate mono-rhyme scheme.

Meter: 8 beats per line, written in iambic tetrameter (4 linear feet of iambic)

Rhyme Scheme: 10-line: a,a,b,b,b,b,b,b,a,a  or 12-line: a,a,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,a,a

How Do I Live My Life Each Day?

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How do I live my life each day?
A touch ribald? A touch blase’?
I live the life of bon vivant
With a hint of nonchalant
And sometimes yes, a dilettante
Now some will say I’m arrogant
But none can claim I live pissant
My joie de vivre is abundant
Each day I rise “L’Chaim!” I say
Nor have it any other way

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Real Toads: The Tuesday Platform

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National Poetry Writing Month – Day 4

Today’s form: Duo-Rhyme (12 line)

The Duo-rhyme, is a 10 or 12-line poem, with the first two and last two lines having the same rhyme scheme, and the center of the poem (lines #3 through #8 or #10) having their own separate mono-rhyme scheme.

Meter: 8 beats per line, written in iambic tetrameter (4 linear feet of iambic)

Rhyme Scheme: 10-line: a,a,b,b,b,b,b,b,a,a  or 12-line: a,a,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,b,a,a