Being Human

 

 
A chance design, or all His will?
I wonder still.
Holy? Profane? Scared? Obscene?
What does it mean?
Living each day the best we can,
Being human,
From birth to death each single span.
Combination of what we feel,
And all the ways in which we deal?
I wonder still, what does it mean, being human?

A new Oviellejo to ponder as you wander…

I sat here this morning bemoaning my current bout of insomnia and how it is taking finally its toll on me today. Cranky from lack of rest. Jittery from the excessive amounts of caffeine I’ve already consumed to get me through this day. A day that still has several more long hours in it before I can lay my head to rest and hope I can get some decent sleep tonight.

And then a friend posted a link: 40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken

To directly quote from the article “A moving collection of iconic photographs from the last 100 years that demonstrate the heartbreak of loss, the tremendous power of loyalty, and the triumph of the human spirit. Warning: Some of these will make you weep.”

I first saw this article when it came out last year. Some of the photographs will at least give you pause, it got to me then. As I went through these photographs again today, I realize nothing has changed. I felt that same sense of kin. For people from my own country and abroad. I find myself not just sympathetic, but empathetic to so many of them. People I never have and/or never will meet. Their raw moments of joys, pains, fears, courage.

I am reminded once more of the beautiful fragility that is the human element.

And oddly enough, I am suddenly wide awake and no longer cranky. Perspective is everything.

Here’s passing on a little of that perspective for your day:

Seriously, before clicking the link down below, if you’re consuming any food or beverage, put it down. In addition you may want to have a napkin/tissue at the ready for any cryi– I mean for any grit that may get stuck under your eyelid.

40 Of The Most Powerful Photographs Ever Taken

Updated to add: I suspect a certain photo of a man in a cowboy during the aftermath of the bombings at the Boston Marathon will be added to this list soon.

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Open Link Night — week 92

Weapon of Choice

 

 

Do I commend? Do I condemn?
Letting you worry,
Brow arched, I smile – walk away.
My weapon of choice.

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(My apologies to those expecting Fatboy Slim / Christopher Walken :-p)

Learned of a new form yesterday – Naani

The Naani is one of the Indian popular Telugu poems. Naani means an expression of one and all. This very short form consists of 4 lines with the lines totaling 20 to 25 syllables. The poem is not bounded to a particular subject. Generally it depends upon human relations and current statements.

And Yet I Know…

 

 
I smile as flowers start to grow
But yet I know
The season holds bittersweet sting
Every spring
The air hints warm, yet brings scant bliss
It’s you I miss
These moments when I go through this
This woe is never long to last
And joy of longer days come fast
But yet I know, every spring, it’s you I miss

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Welcome to the Oviellejo

The Oviellejo is an Old Spanish verse form (derived from ovillo, a ball of yarn). A stanza consists of 10 lines, with a rhyme scheme of AABBCCCDDC. The second line of each rhyme scheme, Line 2,4,6, is short line of up to 5 syllables. The last line is a “redondilla,” a “little round” that collects all three of the short lines.

Open Link Night ~ 91

Lion / Lamb

claude-monet-the-magpie-1869

I place my palm against the frosted pane
Sighing as winds blow snow drifts all around
Winter has cast its shadow long and wide

A summer gal, this cold has been my bane
Oh this winter has indeed been a hound
Whose howls I’ve never learned to take in stride

I look for signs of life along the lane
Hardly a sign of beast or fowl is found
From winter’s bite, is something we all hide

It seems so long since blossoms dressed my mane
And grass not snow was blanketing the ground
I long to see one budding thing outside

So tired of this chill, last patience tried
I smile at last for signs of spring are spied

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dVerse ~ Poets Pub |Form for All: Trireme Sonnet

All of Love

Promises made in gall of love
The lies some tell in thrall of love

Another sigh while pictures tear
The heart that breaks in stall of love

Lighting a flame, saying a prayer
Things done in hope in call of love

Sometimes one needs to lose to win
The second chance in fall of love

Then chains of fear soon fall away
And Raivenne flies your halls of love

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Trying my hand at a traditional Ghazal form.

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | FormForAll: On Ghazals and the Ghazal Sonnet

Like Jazz On A Snowy Eve

You walked in as always, someone grand
Full of ego and pride, swagger on display
The tone of my words caused your grin to wane
Releasing myself from you wasn’t planned
But I knew it was right and held my ground

The words once spoken tasted sweet as candy cane
Like summertime as delivered by Coltrane

I know I said goodbye, for that was all left to say
Despite your efforts to get the words all twisted
From the window I watch the receding back of you.
Your snowy footsteps a contrail, as you walk away
Then watched them get erased with a shovel’s scraping

Sometimes letting go is just all you can do
But Miles knows, it’s still just some kind of blue.

And like that it’s as though you never existed
The memory of us already starting to fade
I feel like I should at least want to cry
But my breath on the pane is the only thing misted
And I pour myself a glass, as the witching hour chimes

Snow done falling, staring out at a chilled winter sky
A glass of red ’round midnight, just Thelonious and I

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A little etymology here…

The final couplet (the last two lines), is a direct quote of my Facebook status from Saturday. Those two lines inspired this write. I had also promised myself, since I had tried my pen at David James’ Karousel from last week’s FormForAll | Karoulsels and Weaves, that I would finally tackle his Weave form. However, I really like the final couplet so much that I could not bear to separate the lines that inspired it all to fit the form. So, as I am wont to do with forms, and my apologies to David, I compromised. The result you see is a variation on the Weave form. Think of it as adding two extra strands to the pattern. The rhyme scheme here is: abcad cc befbg ff ehiej ii (and so on).

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight Week 81

Yes It’s Time

I sit here in this foreign clime
Skyscrapers far as the eye can sweep
And strange rurals, bring forth a yawn
Once joys, now all things I detest
I’m going home, aye, yes it’s time.

My home so many scribe, regale
Of craven and the ones of brawn
The men of yore adorned in crests
Words that make one laugh and weep
And yet fall flat upon truth’s tale

The hills that rise and fall gently
Row upon row of verdant breasts
Their knolls soft, their valleys deep
That lull in dusk as well as dawn
My lands of home they call to me

Oh yes, my life will travel and roam
Yet never thought these sojourns would keep
Me so long from the lands that I love best
This homesickness must be withdrawn
Aye, yes it’s time, I’m going home

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Trying out David James’ Karousel form.

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | Form For All: Karousels and Weaves

The Wind Grows Colder

The wind grows colder
Winter chills
And on this first  night

I seek You
As I always have
Wondering

With my heart and soul
So weary
Of the questioning

Sometimes loud
Sometimes in silence
I just pray

The wind grows colder
Winter chills
Awaiting Your word

Still I pray
What more can be done
I know not

I who have followed
Who believes
Is my faith not true?

Your response
In the deep nothing
Is silence

The wind grows colder
Winter chills
And so does my soul

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Playing around, mixing the 5/3/5 and the 3/5/3 versions of the La Lune poetry form.

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | Form For All: La Lune

Carol’s Day / Carol’s Night

Blizzard came from nowhere – darned blizzard
But am I a fan of snow? Of course not! But
Not that anyone asked me – of course not!

Happy? Of course, my children were happy
Snow day – no school – too much snow
Shot my plans for the day – totally shot

To finish the Harbor Memorial Feast, to
Do all the things I needed to do
Stuck at home just as I was stuck

Too late for to call a babysitter too
Take them all was more than I could take
Suck! Did all this simply suck!

Past noon, cabin fever claimed by noon’s past
Comfort of home is no longer a comfort
Fried ketchup? No, ketchup can’t be fried!

Nuts are in the DVD?!! ARE YOU NUTS?!?!
Kids – my darling, usually, well- behaved kids
Tried my patience, like it has never been tried

Parcel left at the curb, not even my parcel
Cussing inside instead of verbally cussing
Tongue hurt ‘cause I bit my tongue

Shoveled whatever needed to be shoveled
Salt got in my eyes – hydrochloride rock salt
Stung like the devil, how it stung!

Entertain? Tonight he wants to entertain?
Insane! My husband is freaking insane!
Oh migraine! I’m getting a migraine – oh!

Rang in the evening, my doorbell rang
Worsening a mood, way past worsening
Things I can’t be bothered by, nonsense things

Carolers, candle-holding carolers
Singers they wanted more singers
Sing they wanted me to sing

Spying eyes behind the curtains spying
Great – my husband actually said great!
Go ahead honey. You know you want to go!

Hymns, well I could sing the opus hymns
Joy – yes, it would bring back my lost joy
Go yes go! Hey lets all go!

Out we went and sang our voices out
Bells we rang singing Silver Bells
Praise flow from voices, joyous praise

Songs, how we sang those songs!
Grew friendships as carolers grew
Raised spirits with opus raised

So the stars – how they twinkle so!
Smiling with my kids just smiling
Right perfect, weather just right

Drifts of snow in piling drifts
Pains of day, now forgotten pains
Night divine O Holy Night

Heat, we savor the cocoa’s heat
Sweet comforts of my home sweet
Complete peace to a day complete

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Giving the Serpentine Verse a holiday whirl!

dVerse ~ Poets Pub | OpenLinkNight – Week 76 – Holiday Edition

Psyche’s Lament

While yet I find you waiting in my dreams
It’s though we’re not meant for the light of day
The sunlight hides your face from me it seems

I have no idea just what all this means
This haunt my subconscious has wont to play
While yet I find you waiting in my dreams

Your face so near yet blinded by moonbeams
Your face so gone when lords of light hold sway
The sunlight hides your face from me it seems

A hapless pawn I am in these grand schemes
You hide at the first hint of sun’s display
While yet I find you waiting in my dreams

Or do you have a hand in these extremes
These rules I have no choice but to obey
The sunlight hides your face from me it seems

You’re here at Nox’s whims but yet it deems
That Eos equally keeps you at bay
The sunlight hides your face from me it seems
While yet I find you waiting in my dreams

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dVerse ~ Poets Pub | Form for All: Physics and the Art of the Villanelle