Ticonderoga

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Raivenne

Tico My Heart,

I remember my first encounters with you
Not my first childish attempts of
What I now know is my full passion
But the first time
The time when I knew this was it
The joy I felt
Holding you close to me
Running my fingers over the mysteries
of your contours
No longer questioning why
I’m drawn to you

And every now and then
When the confines of that
Which I call my world
Threaten to crowd me
Almost as reflex I suppose,
I find myself
In a place
Walls don’t always exist
But drawn by you

And when I’m occasionally selfish
You don’t mind
For you know
The extent of the power
You have over me
When drawn with you

You give worlds of images
All perfectly contained
Within the movements
Of as few
Or as many
Well placed strokes
From my soul
As drawn through you

Whether
To you,
By you,
With you,
Through you,
Nothing beats the feel
Of you, my Ticonderoga
No. 2 Soft
I’m drawn
No. 2 Soft Pencil

The NaPoWriMo site challenge for Day 2: Write a platonic love poem. In other words, a poem not about a romantic partner, but some other kind of love – your love for your sister, or a friend, or even your love for a really good Chicago deep dish pizza. The poem should be written directly to the object of your affections (like a letter is written to “you”), and should describe at least three memories of you engaging with that person/thing.

A Cage

Posted on April 1, 2024 by Raivenne

A
cage is
not just bars
that can withhold
the physical self

Words
spoken
heartlessly
but struck deeply
Can confine the soul

For
only
as long as
you are willing
to let them hold you

As always I begin National Poetry Writing Month with an Arun, as I have done these past few years, in honor of the fiend (<– not a misspell), and creator of this poetic form – GirlGriot, who first got me into this yearly challenge.

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

The NaPoWriMo site challenge for Day 1: Pick a word from a given list . Then write a poem titled either “A [your word]” or “The [your word]” in which you explore the meaning of the word, or some memory you have of it, as if you were writing an illustrative/alternative definition. I chose the word Cage.

Just Because…

Posted on April 8, 2023 by Raivenne

Just because I no longer
stand in front of your eyes
doesn’t mean you can’t see me
close them,
I am there

Just because I no longer
answer when you call my name
doesn’t mean you can’t hear me,
speak softly, listen carefully
there is my voice

Just because I can no longer
touch your hands
doesn’t mean you can’t feel me,
hold on to another,
my arms are there

Just because I am no longer there
to show you I love you
doesn’t mean my love is gone,
Place your hand on your heart,
feel its beat
I am there

Know that I am with God

Know that God is with you

And in that we are still with each other

Just because…

Day eight of National Poetry Writing Month

National Poetry Writing Month
20 years of 30 poems in 30 days

In The Moment

Posted on April 7, 2023 by Raivenne

The silence was loud – A cacophony
In the moment felt after – Their two hearts beating as one
What once was – scattered – What it now collects
So beyond what could have been – In the moment of his kiss
When he marked her with a smack – That she returns it in kind

dVerse Poets Pub : MTB: Cleaving to Antonyms in Contrapuntal Lines

Tonight, Laura is hosting this week where we are challenged to cleave antonyms in a contrapuntal poem.

Here I play with the ending and the beginning of a relationship, tenses and use of the word smack a bit of a contranym itself.

Choosing from a collection of opposing word pairs as a prompt. We must then write two distinct poems, while including the chosen words somewhere in the body of each poem and then combine as one larger composition as either a Contrapuntal, Cleave or Reverso form.

When looking up examples of the above poetry form I realized I knew of another form which aso fit the desired theme perfectly and offer a Super Tanka.

Day seven of National Poetry Writing Month

House of Mourning

Posted on April 6, 2023 by Raivenne

Tears stop just short of flowing down
So silent remains my grief
Buried deep in the mundane of simply living
Far from the shores of relief

Still I wear so clumsily the my mask of norm
Designed to hide the depth of the moaning well
My true face of sorrow is exposed around the edges
All those around me can tell

I claim this brooding on my own
It is my desire
I am not yet prepared to unburden this load
And none dare to inquire

It is not my wish to dwell in this house of mourning
Sleep soundly in this bed of pain
But as long as my heart closets these lamentations
Locked shall its doors remain

Day six of National Poetry Writing Month

I Know In The Morning You’ll Walk Away

Posted on April 3, 2023 by Raivenne

This is the bend before the break.
This is the mercy not the grace.
This is the proof and not the faith I try to find.
There shouldn’t be a good in goodbye.
–Jason Walker / Shouldn’t Be A Good in Goodbye

The night beautiful and starry
Then you pull me close – whisper I’m sorry
And something inside begins to shake
For I know in the morning you’ll walk away
It’ll only hurt more if I ask you to stay
And this is more than I can take
This is the bend before the break

It’s not what’s meant by ‘till death us do part’
When the thing that’s dead is your heart
But I see the nothing left in your face
So when you tell me it will be okay
I know in the morning you’ll walk away
Leaving me in the pain for time to erase
This is the mercy not the grace

This is not how it I want it to be
My heart shattered all around me
The loosened knot of the ties that bind
I know in the morning you’ll walk away
You tell me, I’ll be fine again someday
And it is a truth that’s most unkind
This is the proof and not the faith I try to find

Even though we it’s far from right
When I let you stay for one last night
You hold me with love, that I know is a lie
And there’s not a damn thing left to say
When I know in the morning you’ll walk away
So when the dawn and I break, I don’t cry
There shouldn’t be a good in goodbye

Day 3 of National Poetry Writing Month

I play around with an untraditional glosa

Chipped Away

Posted on April 2, 2023 by Raivenne

Never one for romances
I was blinded to arrive
Apart from old advances
By time’s sweetest contrive

You chipped at the iciness
That fear had given quarter
Revealing warm spiciness
Under this cold heart’s mortar

With twin hearts now emblazing
Gave no choice but to sever
The cold to the amazing
This love so dear so clever

Day 2 of National Poetry Writing Month I bring you an Ae Freislighe poem

The Ae Freislighe (ay fresh-lee) is an old poetic form from Ireland. It has a quatrain stanzas (4-line stanzas) of only 7 syllables per line. What makes is interesting (and somewhat frustrating) is its rhyme scheme.

Lines 1 and 3 rhyme together, but they rhyme as three syllables (xxa)
Lines 2 and 4 rhyme together as two syllables (xb)

A unique element of the form is that the final syllable of the poem should be the same rhyme as the very first syllable of the poem. (Yes, I cheated here – rhyming the word, not the syllable. It said should not must – shoot me.)

An Ae Freislighe poem can be as concise as one stanza, or scale out as far as a poet wishes.

Not Waste It

Posted on April 1, 2023 by Raivenne

I
Do sense
Here and now
This first bright spark
I shall not waste it

You
Also
Know the gods
This moment touched
You will not waste it

We
Now one
Deep feeling
This sacredness
We do not waste it

I kick off National Poetry Writing Month with an Arun, as I have done these past few years, in honor of the fiend (<– not a misspell), and creator of this poetic form – GirlGriot, who first got me into this yearly challenge.

Red, White, Blue

Posted on April 1, 2022 by Raivenne

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

<>==========<>==========<>

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.

Self

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Raivenne

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).

Raivenne-lations

Doing what you like is freedom; liking what you do is happiness.

Tag Archives: National Poetry Month