Poetry
-
Valentine
Heart-shaped sentiments wrapped in plastic sit on shelves, waiting to be purchased– given in stead of unpolished words: the real gold and diamonds, hidden beneath silence in the darkness of that knowing space between us. These feelings cost nothing… cannot be found at the checkout, an afterthought among the magazines and candy bars. Love does not need a holiday. It needs every day. Every breath. Every heartbeat.
-
The Map of the Soul
Her blue-green pulse flutters beneath rice-paper skin, braided veins, like intersecting highways, connect destinations across the continent of her body. He has traveled every road, knows every spot and scar, has drawn lines to chart his journey. But she is soft, after all these years, pliable and faded. Creases have worn holes at her corners. So he rarely unfolds her anymore. He doesn’t need to, though. He knows every back road, every scenic route, every waterway, every landmark, by heart. She has become the map of his own soul, and, holding her gnarled hand, hearing her whispered breath, he could find his way blind.
-
Erotic poems, love letters, and sexy lingerie
Basket of Figs By Ellen Bass Bring me your pain, love. Spread it out like fine rugs, silk sashes, warm eggs, cinnamon and cloves in burlap sacks. Show me the detail, the intricate embroidery on the collar, tiny shell buttons, the hem stitched the way you were taught, pricking just a thread, almost invisible. Unclasp it like jewels, the gold still hot from your body. Empty your basket of figs. Spill your wine. That hard nugget of pain, I would suck it, cradling it on my tongue like the slick seed of pomegranate. I would lift it tenderly, as a great animal might carry a small one in the private…
-
Zappai
Here it is! The final A-Z Challenge post! I fucking did it!!!! Zappai poems are like haiku; they have a 5-7-5 syllable pattern but do not contain the seasonal reference expected of haiku. In other words, zappai are all those haiku people write that haiku poets recognize as not being haiku. In fact, I’d say most of the “haiku” I’ve written over the years have actually been zappai. Go figure…learned something today! The End I walk to the end, realizing it circles back, and sigh, audibly.
-
Ya-du
2 more to go…and the A-Z Challenge is in the bag! The ya-du is a Burmese poetic form. Here are the guidelines (taken from Writer’s Digest): Quintains (or five-line stanzas). Four syllables in the first four lines. The final line has either five, seven, nine, or 11 syllables. The fourth syllable of the first line rhymes with the third syllable of the second line and the second syllable of the third line. The fourth syllable of the third line rhymes with the third syllable of the fourth line and the second syllable of the fifth line. The fourth syllable of the fourth line rhymes with the final syllable of the…
-
Xiaoshi
I had to dig deep to find a poetic form starting with “X”. This explanation is from Judi Van Gorder: Xiaoshi, (small poem,shi = poetry / xiao = little, diminutive or small) is a genre of Chinese poetry from the 1920s. It is a fragmented poem with minimal explanation. It teams seemingly unrelated images with little indication of cause and effect. The frame is at the discretion of the poet although in sync with most Chinese poetry, it is common to be written as a quatrain. Here’s my attempt… Somewhere sweat beads on brows muscles pulse, playing heart beats audible breath turns to pleasure moan somewhere–lovers lay spent rooms filled…
-
Waka
4 more to go! The A-Z Challenge is just about under my belt! (Sadly…in my website update this morning, I lost my last post for the “viator” form…I’m not about to go back and re-write it, though – just rest assured that I DID write it…and I’m keeping credit for it, dammit). The waka is a Japanese 5-line poem (or stanza) that is often considered synonymous with the tanka, because both have a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable per line structure. However, the waka groups its lines together in a particular way. The first 2 lines should make up one piece, the next 2 lines should make the next, and then, the final line…
-
Utendi
Okay, guys, I’m digging deep on this one. “U” was a tough one to find, and none of them have looked real easy to achieve (the first one I found was an Arabic form written in the “meter of the camel”…not sure what that means, but, hey, maybe it’s a cultural thing, and I’d have to have been there to understand). I’ve opted to go with the Utendi or Untenzi (Swahili meaning “deed” or “act”) which is a Swahili form. These poems are apparently usually narrative and should tell a story. Swahili epics appear in this form, not that I’ve read many of those. The elements of the Utendi are:…
-
Tricube
Alright then, I’m back for more poetry!!! And we are soooo close to the end of the A-Z Challenge. Today, I don’t have a lot time for writing, so I’ve chose the tribcube. Here are the rules of tricubes: Each line contains three syllables. Each stanza contains three lines. Each poem contains three stanzas. Meditation I sit here with the cat listening. His soft purrs vibrating right through me. It calms me, prepares me, to face things. A Hundred Times HIs cock grows: skin stretching, blood flowing. I watch it come to life in my hand… even though I’ve seen it a thousand times. I always feel that each line…
-
Sijo
For my National Poetry Month A-Z Challenge today, I considered attempting a German shuttelreim (go ahead…look it up), but it scared me a bit, so I’m falling back on the Korean sijo. The sijo is actually older than haiku, and since I haven’t done a Korean form before, I figured this was a good time. Like haiku, the sijo is only three lines long. The poems are meant to be songs. Here are the guidelines: 3 lines in length, averaging 14-16 syllables per line The traditional syllable break: Line 1: 3-4-4-4 Line 2: 3-4-4-4 Line 3: 3-5-4-3 Each line should have a pause or break in the middle Line 1…
