Thou Hath Wrought This

Do you know what happens when I think of you?
The lessons I’ve managed to learn in this life
On whom I can depend for all that I want
All the rest of the things I have come to know
How they effect the what and who I am now
And what hath thou wrought, Daddy? Thou hath wrought – this

I was my father’s daughter, thou hath wrought – this
Every ounce of hate I learned, first came from you
It’s a bell I strive to un-ring even now
Fully believed when you said ‘this ain’t worth life’
Of course learning ‘this’ meant me, took time to know
Freedom to roam, the only thing you did want

Know what I wished for? What I truly did want?
To be fatherless child, thou hath wrought – this
Circles of your first, back of your palms I know
For it was the most I’d ever see of you
Getting worse as I got to know some of life
Innocence not a card that I could play now

Come sixteen praying – I’m too used for you now
But I was wrong, you still did just what you want
As you had been doing for all my young life
On my knees for more than prayer, thou hath wrought – this
But the boys loved the lessons first learned from you
Just who I learned it from, they never did know

But I found something I never thought to know
A something gallant within, even now
Nearly buried forever from hate of you
Something you thought that I would never stand to want
Faith that somewhere love exists, thou hath wrought – this
And by having such, a renewed urge for life

You can’t jam hate into a soul filled with life
I’m strong in the love that came so late to know
A phoenix from hate’s ashes, thou hath wrought – this
But I am Janus, the reverse of you now
Doing opposite of all you taught to want
For in spite of your grip, I can release you

And there’s a peace to know, there’s worth to my life
I love and am loved, this I’d want to you know
I think of you now, glad thou hath wrought – this

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A hard form this time: Sestina

A Sestina is a poem consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, where the words ending the lines of the first stanza are repeated in a different order at the end of lines in each of the subsequent five stanzas and, two to a line, in the middle and at the end of the three lines in the closing envoy. The patterns of word-repetitions are as follows:

1 2 3 4 5 6
6 1 5 2 4 3
3 6 4 1 2 5
5 3 2 6 1 4
4 5 1 3 6 2
2 4 6 5 3 1
(6 2) (1 4) (5 3)

There is no set meter or rhyme scheme although traditionally most were written in iambic pentameter. The closing envoy also has several variations some of which are:

(2 5)(4 3)(6 1),
(1 2)(3 4)(5 6) or
(1 4)(2 5)(3 6).

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpneLinkNight – Week 99

A Taxing Price

She rides bareback upon the mare,
The sun makes nimbus of her hair,
The glow adds to her beauty fair.
All loudly gasp as they take air,
There’s naught that they can do but stare.

Her men walk with her as she rides
They move as one, in perfect stride
Surrounding her from every side.
She ignores the pleas and chides
Beauty like hers, this she must hide.

As word spreads, more do convene
To spy a sight for from routine
This woman valued as a queen
Has not the vanity to preen,
Just holds her head, high to be seen.

With shock and awe her lord reacts
To her fair skin and hair of flax
And all the garments that she lacks!
But he cannot ignore the facts
He could have stopped this in its tracks
Had he just lowered the damned tax!

Artwork of Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva

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In a silly mood

dVerse Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 48

The Bloom

.
.
I saw this little sprout one day
A sprout like none I’ve seen before
Unique

Rising between a concrete crack
From time to time I would notice
The growth

Against the forces deigned to halt,
Something so delicate and free
It thrived

From spindly bud to luscious bloom
One day it caught my eye and held
Me there

I knew then any further growth
Would need the help of one who cared
Like me

For I then young but determined
Had learned sometimes even the tough
Need help

That I needed this bloom as much
Was revelation in itself
Welcomed

The bloom that grew to be my wife
That watched me grow from boy to man
To hers

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Today’s form: Synchronicity

“Synchronicity” (The state or fact of being synchronous or simultaneous; synchronism. coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related.). This form consists of eight three-line stanzas in a syllable pattern of 8/8/2. This poetry type has no rhyme and is written in the first person with a twist. The twist is to be revealed within the last two stanzas.

Theme Thursday | Evolution

dVerse Poets | OpenLinkNight – Week 47

Morning

Lying in your arms, feeling the dawn slowly
mark it way across our bodies
        My head says time to get up
             My heart differs
Gentle stroking, up and down
my spine
touch of gossamer
there… not there
        Warm
              Stirring
Is it real or do I sleep still?
Too real to be a dream, slowly bringing me
from the depths of sleep
         Smooth
              Slow
                   Sensual…
As though a sudden move
would cause me to shatter
I wake easily,
        Knowing the warmth I feel
              is more than the rising sun
I turn to you.
My eyes are closed,
        but I can see your smile,
              feel you surround me.
Your lips upon mine.
        Asking a silent question.
              Receiving a silent answer.

Love me…?
        Yes…
              Oh yes…
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OpenLinkNight — Week 46

In The Hands

Cloth girds his eyes in loose blindfold
He lays there and conforms as told
To move now would court disaster
He’s in the hand of the master

A maze is stroked across his skin
He holds the urge to gasp within
Warm oils offer scents of aster
He’s in the hand of the master

He seams the pleasure with the pain
The odd brew comfort it contains
One moment slow, the next faster
He’s in the hand of the master

Bordered on pleasure’s dive he moans
And lets escape a fizzled groan
Flesh yields like sinner to pastor
He’s in the hand of the master

A subtle tap sends the message
His hour’s up for this massage
His twinkled grin is now plastered
He’s in the hand of the master

Sore muscles tamed by fingers meek
Sets his appointment for next week
A magic touch like spell casters
He’s in the hand of the master


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And today’s form? Kyrielle

The French kyrielle is composed entirely of quatrains (a quatrain is any stanza with four lines). There is no set number of stanzas, although generally a kyrielle contains three or more. The rhyme scheme is up to the poet (aabb ccbb ddbb etc. is frequently used), but it must be the same for all stanzas. Also, the last line of all stanzas is the same. Kyrielles generally have eight syllables per line, although this is not a requirement.

Other rhyme schemes for the quatrain could be abaB, cbcB, dbdB, etc… or abbA, accA, addA, etc.. As long as the each quatrain uses the same rhyme scheme, the choice is yours.

dVerse Poets | OpenLinkNight – Week 44

Missing You

Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall
For a chance to be with you, I’d gladly risk it all
Through the fire, through whatever come what may
For a chance at loving you, I’d take it all the way

“Through the Fire” – Chaka Khan / I Feel For You

Sadness plays on the stereo through and through
Yet I can’t make myself move to turn the dial
Each song gives recollection of the love I once knew
Each song packs a tear slipping past memory’s smile
Another tear drops with the revelation – I’m missing you
For my life, I couldn’t tell you what started it all
Perhaps it was the love that came from up above
A dreamland with the best that we were made of
This was ours – winter, spring, summer or fall
Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall

I see the pictures on the wall, where more memories bestrew
A capture of that infamous “I know something” smirk
That to this day the origins of that one I never did construe
All I can do is once again laugh – God you were such a jerk
Head in hands, I cry through my frustration – I’m missing you
There are times I still turn thinking I heard your footfall
In just that moment forgetting Death’s crow, the cruel thief
For I know I’m imagining things and I’m mad at my own relief
Do I dare think of what I’d decide if choice came to call?
For a chance to be with you, I’d gladly risk it all

Turning off the stereo, I somehow manage to do
Quoted lyrics so beyond affecting all that I feel
I wonder how long before there’s a call to Bellevue
Because I’m laughing, but Lord knows this pain is real
And the tears flow without cessation – I’m missing you
A twisted part of me wonders the price I’d pay,
What trial to finish, what deadliest path by far
Would it take to uncross that most unforgiving star?
If it gained me but a moment with the Fates to parley
Through the fire, through whatever come what may

No hopes of thinking this bout is anywhere near through
I close my eyes, but it’s really beyond my command
I watch it all just as clearly, caught in memory’s purview
As trapped in this heartbroken tide as love letters in the sand
Cold gripped in the moment’s desperation – I’m missing you
I know I’ll have better ones, but no, not this day
And I gather these precious memories of our past
Even while knowing this is just a mood not long to last
And not finding it in the least wrong to honestly say
For a chance at loving you, I’d take it all the way

====================
Yes, my old friend the Glosa form.

dVerse Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight ~ Week 43

Noir Queen

My existence emerged from the chaos of Day One
And will reign until the last day is done
In my realm from the moment a man is conceived
Until called upon finally for my kiss to receive

The shadow of the valley that is me
In the flowing robes of destiny
My right divine is beyond your laws
I make the most fearless give pause

Unable to resist my mating call
A mere crook of my finger and men fall

Chained to breathe life to your darkest desire
And you the spark to ignite my erotic pyre
Driven to taste the dew of my damned lips
Your undoing comes in the sway of my hips

I am the soul so tainted never again to be pure
The virulent disease for which there is no cure
Doctors, wizards, even shaman glower
In respect to the infinity of my power

There is not a soul I cannot lay bare
Seductress Supreme I am beyond compare

Gaia herself cannot gainsay my dark deeds
This blackest of heart rides the palest of steed
None is exempt from the road I pave
To predestined perdition – you are my slave

From the moment of conception until your death
I live in you and then take from you your last breath
Nyx, Arianrhod, Kali, Naamah, Hecate
However you chose to call me, I am your fate

You are free of my service only whence I so glean
I am the darkness, I am the eternal, I am the Noir Queen

====================

dVerse Poets Pub : OpenLinkNight ~ Week 42

Memory


Oh sometimes I see her undressing for me,
she’s the soft naked lady love meant her to be
and she’s moving her body so brave and so free.
If I’ve got to remember that’s a fine memory
Tonight Will Be Fine – Leonard Cohen

It’s been seventeen years to the day
Since the love of all time went away
I have taken up some count of others in time
A fleeting rendezvous, a phase, merely a mime
Of she who’s measure of love was so sublime
In my minds eye the only place left to see
The unabashed beauty she brought to my life
It’s been quite a clock’s beat since she was my wife
If I’ve got to remember that’s a fine memory
Oh sometimes I see her undressing for me, 

Sometimes shyly, sometimes bold
Her shift of moods just never grew old
She was a force of nature in a human space
I know it’s a period of time I just can’t replace
Still I know it’s what I search in each new face
Just a smidgen of her essence in each body
Granted their faces are hardly same
And it’s cruel to them caught in my game
Oh sometimes I see her undressing for me,
She’s the soft naked lady love meant her to be 

In public she joked she hated my whiskers
Our joke word for liquor and how it just tickled her
When it dripped in my beard then I kissed her within
She had a rhythm that filled me with such a yen
That only she could fulfill again and again
Time softened us both as time should
But like aged whiskers and cheese – so beyond good
She’s the soft naked lady love meant her to be
And she’s moving her body so brave and so free. 

Sometimes in throes, I’m almost there
Where all I can feel of her fills the air
And in those moments on the verge
I’ll swear it’s her passions I feel surge
But try as I might I can’t hold that urge
And must lapse to facts of my reality
But in that moment life’s so incredibly kind
In those visions of her I hold in my mind
And she’s moving her body so brave and so free
If I’ve got to remember that’s a fine memory

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Back to my beloved Glosa form and more borrowed lines from Leonard Cohen.

The glosa is a Spanish form that also works well in English.   Glosas open with a quatrain from another poet, called the cabeza, followed by four ten-line stanzas terminating with the lines of the initial cabeza in consecutive order.  The sixth and ninth lines of each stanza rhyme with the borrowed tenth line and is the only required rhyme of the poem. There is no set meter or syllable count for a Glosa, however, a good flow is always recommended.

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dVerse Poets Pub } OpenLinkNight – Week 41

Summanus

Imagine I am Summanus

Thunder god of night

Full of dark promise

And surprise

Lingering in moonlight

Touching you

There

Reaching out with

Diaphanous fingers

Taking you to me

Let me gather you in

Gossamer arms

And hold you tight

Let my star-streaked tongue

Wax and wane

In supple poses

Over the blossom of you

And lick clean the soul

Of your body

Let my moon-body

Take yours

Mold the white heat

Of your passions

And form stars

Let me teach you

To suckle

The flow of the galaxies

from within in

For sustenance

You have known yearning

Known need

Known the hot darkness

Breeding fire inside

Let the chaos

Come

Our joining

Personified in

Aurora and comets

But first

Right now

Let me touch

The life at your lips

And hungrily kiss you

Into my eternity

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Entered in dVerse Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 40

Lock / Key

I had closed the door upon my heart and wouldn’t let anyone in
Trusted and loved only to be hurt swore it to never happen again
I had locked the door and tossed the key as hard, and as far as I could
Love would never enter there again yes, my heart was closed for good
I thought that tossed tiny key would be next to impossible to find
Then you came into my life without my even knowing changed my mind
I never imagined how quickly and quietly seeds of love are sown
But can I trust to give my heart again, letting go all the pain I’ve owned?

My love for you is growing, but can I trust in fate?
Should I take one more chance on love, before it’s too late?
Every fiber in my being, tells me this is so very real
But I’ve been down this road before, how do I trust what I feel?
When this heart of mine has been broken more than I can take
I have the fear of again repeating the same love mistakes
Will you let me grow so close to love you, only to let me go?
Or are you my life and soul mate just waiting for a hello?

Artwork: Lock-Key Female / Lock-Key Male by Wak

Resigned to a life of quiet chaos, I figured loneliness was my due
Never imagining the peace I’ve sought would be found in you
Wanting to prove how much I love you, so I did the hardest part
Offering what’s most precious to give…the opening to my heart

You’re my alpha, my new beginning, the door to a peace beyond
Everything I have ever wanted, have ever needed to carry on
I realized I was ready to love you, but didn’t know how to start
So I offer you my most sacred treasure . the key to my heart

Artwork: Lock-Key Male / Lock-Key Female by Wak

In your arms there is no concept of time and place
I’m lost to the passions found only in your embrace

Never would I have imagined there could ever be more bliss
Than the joy, the passion, the serenity found in your gentle kiss

Artwork: Lock Exchanged by Wak

Two lonely separate souls now joined, never again to be apart

Melting together to become one love, one soul, one heart

Artwork: Lock United by Wak 

All Artwork:
“Lock & Key Male” / “Lock & Key Female”
“Lock & Key Exchanged” / “Lock & Key United”
by WAK (Kevin A. Williams)

 

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dVerse Poets Pub | Open Link Night ~ Week 39