Poetry
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Hay(na)ku
For the A-Z Challenge this year, and in honor of National Poetry Month, I’m a attempting a new-to-me form of poetry each day. I’ve written hundreds of haiku over the course of my lifetime, but the hay(na)ku is new to me. Find out more about it here. They are both fun and EASY. Which I definitely needed after the last few. 1 Blessed we are to breathe free. 2 You keep me hungry for more. 3 Books find me lost in myself. 4 Inside she sits, sipping the view. 5 Lovers braid themselves into complex patterns.
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Ghazal
For the A-Z Challenge this year, I’m also celebrating National Poetry Month (this will likely become a “thing” for me). Today, I’m on to “G,” and since I’m pushing myself to write forms that I have never written before, today, I’m going with the ghazal. The rules for this one are quite complex, and rather than rewriting them, take a look at this, as the instructions are good and the example is helpful. Here we go… Grendel’s Price Angry winds blew and the clouds bled darkness– blackbirds gathered, rose in swells, fled darkness. Squealing laughter, fever-pitched, swirled in storm– nightmare shadows took flight and fed darkness. On the alter, bodies…
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Flamenca
For the A-Z Challenge, and to celebrate National Poetry Month, each day I’m attempting a form of poetry I have never written before. Today…the flamenca – 5 lines lines 1, 2, 4, and 5 have 6 syllables line 3 has 5 syllables lines 2 and 5 assonate here’s the pattern template, if you want to try: 1-6 2-6 (a) 3-5 4-6 5-5 (a) A Facile Dip His palm supports the curve of my deeply arched spine as I bend backwards, his arm holding me up… notes still keeping time. Others continue on– swirl, grind, gyrate and slide, but our dance is through: a different song calls the hunger inside. I…
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Echo Verse
For the A-Z Challenge, and to celebrate National Poetry Month, I’m attempting a new poetic form every day. Echo Verse repeat the end syllable(s) of each line no other rules there are two ways to do this: repeat the ending syllable(s) at the end of the same line, or repeat the ending syllable(s) on its own line directly beneath each line So let’s give it a try… (If you are viewing this on a phone, the line breaks are bit off, so I’ve bolded ends and beginnings to make it clearer.) End of Night – The Storm Outside The trees bend, ending night’s stillness— nestling birds quiet their calls. All’s…
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Descort
For the A-Z Challenge this year, I’m honoring National Poetry Month (I’ll probably do this next year, too…because there are so damn many cool forms to try!). Today, it’s the descort. each line needs to be different from every other line in the poem different line lengths, meters, avoids rhyming with other lines, no refrains, and that goes for stanzas, as well no two lines in a descort should look like each other Note: The descort is different from free verse, because even in a free verse poem you may use similar line lengths and meter. However, the descort is very intentional in its variability. I’m also, very intentionally choosing…
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Cascade
form invented by Udit Bhatia poet takes each line from the first stanza of a poem and makes those the final lines of each stanza after that there are no additional rules for rhyming, meter, etc. Communion We sit across from one another, coffee steaming between us, forgettable words forging deep connections. These simple, daily interactions make a marriage — memories, like pearls, shimmering inside the shell of our communion. Your fingers, skin aging around them, occasionally hold mine, silent longings, comfort, understanding shared. There is no need to speak, even though we do, to fill the air as we sit across from one another, coffee steaming between us. Our…
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Bop
3 stanzas Each stanza is followed by a refrain First stanza is 6 lines long and presents a problem Second stanza is 8 lines long and explores or expands the problem Third stanza is 6 lines long and either presents a solution or documents the failed attempt to resolve the problem And on to our second poetic form. Another that I had never heard of, so something completely new to try! Beckoned Alone in the dark, quiet room, I hear your voice in my head, words spoken before you left, “touch yourself.” I am used to following your direction, even when you are gone. You are with me, even when…
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Ae Freislighe
An Irish form of poetry: Quatrain stanzas (4-line stanzas) 7 syllables per line Lines 1 and 3 rhyme together, but they rhyme as three syllables (xxa) Lines 2 and 4 rhyme together as two syllables (xb) The final syllable, word, or line of the entire poem should be the same as the entire poem begins (the poetic term for this is dunadh) Poem can be as concise as one stanza and scale out as far as a poet wishes to push it Here’s my humble (second) attempt: A Place to Hold Me Inside Remember the beginning when you held my heart, beating In your hand, so unsettling… both on the edge…
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Love’s Language
Love’s Language by Ella Wheeler Wilcox How does Love speak? In the faint flush upon the telltale cheek, And in the pallor that succeeds it; by The quivering lid of an averted eye– The smile that proves the parent to a sigh Thus doth Love speak. How does Love speak? By the uneven heart-throbs, and the freak Of bounding pulses that stand still and ache, While new emotions, like strange barges, make Along vein-channels their disturbing course; Still as the dawn, and with the dawn’s swift force– Thus doth Love speak. How does Love speak? In the avoidance of that which we seek– The sudden silence and reserve when…
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Ties that Bind
You write your name on my skin, from across the room, your gaze both creating boundaries and opening up the universe, silently telling me yes or no — invisible conversations between simple daily activities, like dressing for dinner, driving across town. The heat of your touch blossoms anew as I sit. I hold the menu, looking at the words, but my mind is elsewhere, following the stinging tendrils of hand-shaped memory beneath me. Simple words float across the table, but your fingers are complex, slowly tracing mine, electrifying my flesh. Sparks travel, crashing past bone and muscle, to the core of me. You are the only one with the key to that…
