The Freeze

 

In winter’s doom, the rain awaits

For torchlight moon, to rise, elate

A myst of diamond pellets prance

Begins in waves, accumulates

 

In dreams of green and blossom blast

Awakened by the snow of last

We shiver, quake in arctic breath

And slip and slide to portals past

 

 

In response to “Poetics: Games Night” where Sarah has asked us “to choose 3 names from the list of computer game names below, and somehow or other wrangle them into a poem.”  I have incorporated five of them into this Rubaiyat, which I will also link to our most recent challenge in Poetry Forms.

 

Notes: The rhyme scheme is AABA. I did not choose to use the unrhymed B line sound from the first quatrain as the main rhyming sound in the next quatrain, therefore it is not interlinking. This is an option for the form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reflections of Mary – A Sonnet

 

This wild and precious life, you spent lonely

Foraging mushrooms, blackberries…and words

Still you have me pondering not only

On the calm of nature and nature stirred

But on the very essence of each breath

As trees speak my truth in leafy tongues, slurred

The sun meets my skin with every step

And the blue rain beats with my heart, broken

I’ve treasured your thoughts about life and death

Listened to canyons speak the unspoken

I have studied art on the earth’s floor

Weightless as the willows, with mind open

One with the animal spirits, I soar

Your words waxing with the moon evermore

 

 

(For Open Link Night and a late response to Jilly’s Enjambment in Sonnets, part of the Poetry Form challenge at dverse Poets Pub.)

Notes: I chose the Terza Rima form for this piece, consisting of a ABA BCB CDC DED EE rhyme scheme, adding a splash of enjambment. Since the thoughts of each tercet often flow into the next, I decided on leaving no line breaks between them. However, it could be edited into defined tercets, ending with the couplet to present it in traditional terza rima form. I would have to admit that the volta is not emphasized. I simply wanted to pay tribute to the late Mary Oliver, her love and insight of nature and how it has resonated with my own perspectives of life.

 

 

Ruba’i

 

 

Morning breaks my slumber in splatters of freezing rain

Delicate coatings of glass mimic my window pane

If only the world would pause, feel this moment contained

But our thoughts run wild like the tainted river unchained

 

 

For Poetry Forms at dVerse, featuring The Rubaiyet. Fellow pubtender, Frank Hubeny brings us the history and characteristics of the form.

Notes: My first dabbling into this particular form so I’ve begun with one quatrain, known as a “ruba’i . I chose the option of the AAAA rhyme scheme and the original meter of 13 syllables per line. The pattern of accented syllables varies between lines.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Shallows

 

I gather dreams here

where withered leaves lay steepless

seesawing on the surface

of the pond

blue heron freezes for the hunt

I watch his stilt legs bend slightly

swift snap, a sun-blessed breakfast

fish wriggles before the great swallow

my dreams are cast

 

 

It’s Quadrille time at dVerse Poets Pub. I am pleased to be your host as we “steep” 44 words into a poem. Join us at 3 p.m. EST

 

Dear Luna

 

 

Into the night I wait for muse of moon

The stars arrange a symphony of silence

I tinker, tally words and thoughts but soon

Dear Luna slips between the haze, defiant

 

From hinterland the owl bestows a hoot

That echoes in the forests of my mind

I wait for inspiration to take root

As Luna slumbers deep beneath the skies

 

When midnight mocks the cursor on my page

I revel in the balladry unborn

Though constellations, cryptic they may fade

‘Tis hope that lights the way of the forlorn

 

Dear Luna stirs behind her quilt of clouds

She scatters dreams for me to read aloud

 

 

Written for “Poetry Forms”, a dVerse Poets Pub project.

This is my offering of a sonnet in Shakespearean style. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.  The structure consists of 3 quatrains, followed by one couplet. The “volta” occurs in the 12th line . I focused on the iambic pentameter and rhyme. Quite the challenge. You can learn more about this form as Bjorn describes in further detail here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De Novo

 

The view is woodsy from my favourite part of the couch. Streetlights are still on as dawn sheepishly reveals itself outside my window. I resent January with it’s epic entrance, bursting with expectations. It falls short in the shadow of Christmas and I see only grey. The dulling pavement of my street is a reflection of the skies above. Neutral and speechless. Blank and waiting. One grey squirrel clambers up and down the giant maple. I tap on the window. He looks at me curiously, then continues on his quest for hidden peanuts. Someone has been feeding him. I admire his fluffy tail and his simple life. My solitude is broken by that car with the noisy muffler and I wonder why Santa or someone similar did not replace it. I take another sip of tea, breathing in the new year.

 

sun in cloud coma

ashen earth begs for first snow

squirrel pays no mind

Human Equation ~ A Sonnet

 

 

 

 

“Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.”  ~A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ~

 

 

Has God given up on us? Does he weep?

I listen for him in the moon shadows

Dew droplets at dawn, in earth’s gentle sleep

 

Where is the light we were born to embrace?

I sift through the compost of dreams rotted

In darkest alleys, I search for His face

 

Why do we build our own prisons of fear?

Humanity’s keys we hold in our hands

Intentions perish with the silt of tears

 

Do we have the right to ignore our own hearts?

Were they not the gifts of the righteous souls?

Far be it for us to tear them apart

 

Stir gently the pot of evolution

Ignite the flame of a resolution

 

 

Written for a special Poetry Form prompt at dVerse. Bjorn starts us off with some helpful information on sonnets and some exciting news! Doors open at 3 p.m.EST.

  I decided to use the structure of a Terza Rima with 4 tercets and a couplet , but I wandered from the rhyme scheme. Mine is  ABA CDC EFE GHG II.  Oh my, perhaps I shall stick to free verse?