Tag Archives: Rhymed

The Oracle

Posted on by
Odilon Redon, “Closed Eyes”

The Oracle

Oh, call the wind from ocean’s face, and let
return the sun. What comes from this? You see
ahead—to tease with riddles till we’re spent,
confound, confuse, and yet, what is to be?
Long life, some grace, please tell my fate tonight–
Embrace the sight, these rays of dawn’s first light.

For Tanka Tuesday, Colleen asked us to write an acrostic poem using her choice of words and with lines of 8, 9, or 10 syllables. I chose Oracle (of course). I decided to write mine in the style of a sort of mini- Shakespearean sonnet: 10 syllables, an attempt at iambic pentameter, and rhyme scheme of ABABCC.

Ships of Joys and Sorrow

Posted on by
Odilon Redon, “Flower Clouds“

Ship of Joys and Sorrow

We sail a boat beneath a sunny sky,
or drift under the moon, a strange wild song
of wind and wave, and light that asks us why
we sail—from whence–our hearts long to belong.
In lays of sorrow, then in joy, along
a pulse, a strum, gull-winged into the blue
of surf and clouds, joined by star-chirps, old song
blue-shifted, ancient-voiced, spin-drifted true–
the song of dreams, just glimpsed, but named, they sigh
in flutter flashed bright–hope, a dragonfly.

I’ve combined two dVerse prompts for this poem:

from Tuesday’s dVerse, using these three Lewis Carroll titles:
A boat beneath a sunny sky, A strange wild song, Lays of sorrow

Today’s dVerse challenge:
“a 10 line stanza poem (more stanzas permitted of this length)
10 syllables per line
rhyme scheme as per the Decuain or free verse if you’d prefer”

See Her: Earth Day, Poetry Month

Posted on by

Oh, the whales! In the sea, breaching waves, free to be
just a mom, or a calf, not baleen, or whale blubber—
no more brigs, no more sails, not these ships, that they flee,
not the past, but the now, the whale fishers. They’ll shoot her
and scrub her, her meat sold, and her fat—but a plea

to see her there in the sea. I’m a mother. So is she.

For dVerse where Björn has asked us to write anapestic tetrameter. Well. . .this is an attempt. I had a second stanza, and I just scrapped it. I think the poem works better without it. This was definitely hard.
This poem is also for Earth Day, which is today.

Several years ago, we visited our daughter and her wife who lived in Boston at the time, and we went on a whale tour, where we saw whale mothers and babies. Whales were a significant trade in New England and elsewhere in the nineteenth-century

And So It Goes, NaPoWriMo

Posted on by

IMG_2245

 

And so, the moon hums

before the storm comes,

clanging and chasing away the blue,

dimming it with charcoal hues,

electrifying sky to ground—

 

always the way, I’ve found–

bright day gives way to night,

calm voice raised before a fight,

delight to sorrow sometimes flows

erasing joy, and yet, the shadows

flicker, so come song and light.

 

The challenge for Day 19 of NaPoWriMo is to write an abecedarian poem. I’ve done two stanzas—a to e and then a to f. The full pink moon was humming fiercely this morning, but we’re supposed to get thunderstorms later today. It’s very cloudy right now, but the birds are singing!

 

 

 

For My Younger Daughter on Her Birthday

Posted on by

Twenty-eight years—

a lifetime—

or just a blink—

 

time passes that way

without regard for what

we think

 

of all the moments,

the tears, the joy,

together, we link

 

them, forming

the totality

I would not rethink

 

through whys

or ifs, to undo

 

that which is

so wondrous–you.

 

A quick birthday poem–posting on dVerse, where Grace is hosting Open Link Night.