A Solo Sail

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

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.

Something Changed

That
Eve
We trailed
Upstream where
The fireflies were
Fireworks in the new moonlight
And the riverbank shimmered its reflection to us
Water lapping at the shoreline
We sat unafraid
Yet nervous
As some
Thing
Changed
Changed
Beneath
The scent of
Sweet honeysuckle
Wafting in the indigo skies
Where something that was once lukewarm in the sultry day
Became more in the soft nightfall
And with one sweet look
You and I
Were now
An
Us

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Written for today’s
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Real Toads: Compound Word Edition

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 6

Today’s form adds up to the Fibonacci Spiral

Those Things That Are Expected

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

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

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?

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

Sleepless

With twirling thoughts inside my head
In knowing each step I took was right
I lay here gazing at walls instead
There is no sleep for me tonight

This first night without you here
Coldness where warmth beside me lay
I find myself in anguished mood
With twirling thoughts inside my head

In this desolation of my thoughts
I mourn the path that brought me here
To blame is futile and pleas unheard
In knowing each step I took was right

The bright moon scoffs at my attempts
And shines its light on the truth of it
Watching its path travel this room
I lay here gazing at walls instead

Somnolence will not be found here
In midst this turmoil of my soul
Dawn will find me as dusk left me
There is no sleep for me tonight

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Today I Cascade.

In a Cascade a poet creates the initial stanza then takes each consecutive line from that first stanza and makes those the final lines of each stanza afterward. If the first stanza is sextet, then the complete poem will have seven stanzas of sextets. A tercet results in four stanzas of tercets and so on. Beyond that, there are no additional rules for rhyming, meter, etc.

 

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dVerse Poets Pub | Open Link Night #183

A Sidekick By Any Other Name

An amigo, a second hand,
Someone who will understand
These windmills that turn in his mind
Whose malevolence only he finds
Never will I understand you see
How such epitomizes me
I have rode by his side
Through thin, through thick
Oh he has hit, he has cursed me
But never once did he kick

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The rules of the Flash 55 challenge are simple. Write a piece of poetry or prose on a subject of your choice in precisely 55 WORDS. For the optional extra part of this month’s challenge, consider writing about The Classics in whichever form appeals: Novels, Music, Art.

For my Flash 55, I chose the ever hapless Sancho Panza pondering the modern phrase for his role in Don Quixote’s life.

As I also wrote it in silly prose, I add it to the list for NaPoWriMo.

Flash 55 Challenge

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National Poetry Writing Month Day 3

Silver Lining

I look upon this cloudy scene
The miles of dark unbroken gray
Stretched to the limits of my sight
As sky turns to sinister mood

What would have been, for sure will not
The lightning strike is close and loud
To emphasize its full intent
Like it or not, it’s understood

That any plans are now for moot
I lay the blame on the storming shroud
Their malice to ruin the day
As if the blame would do much good

I sneak a smile at the dark clouds
Didn’t want to go out anyway

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National Poetry Writing Month 2016 – Day 2

Today’s form is a new one for me – the Bref Double.

The Bref Double has four stanzas – 3 quatrains (4-line stanzas) and 1 couplet (or 2-line stanza).  It carries three rhymes, an A rhyme, B rhyme, and C rhyme. There is no set line length, but the lines should be consistent within each poem. The order of the rhyme varies, but the A and B rhymes must appear twice within the first 3 stanzas and once each in the couplet, while the C rhyme is the final line in each of the quatrains.

Rhymes can be as follows: xaxc xbxc xbac ba, xabc xxxc xabc ab, abxc abxc xxxc ab, xabc xaxc xbxc ab etc.