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Thursday, March 27, 2014

A Tale of Love (and Woe) – Lovers' Song #5

Princess #5




Knight #5




This series is a branch-off of a ten act ballad called A Tale of Love and Woe.

Monday, March 24, 2014

A Tale of Love (and Woe) – Lovers' Song #4

Knight #4


Princess #4




This series is a branch-off of a ten act ballad called A Tale of Love and Woe.


Sunday, March 23, 2014

I'll Be Right Here

"You said, ' Young man don't rely on a sword.
                   Cause your words will outlive even time.'
I've counted my blessings.  The rest are for you.
Please listen close for awhile.
And breathe, breathe, deep for me...."
                                                -James
                                                  O.A.R. (of a revolution)

Your eyes cling to me - grounding you.
So many words you have yet to shed
spill from your eyes in silent pleas,
but I know all that there is to be said;
your words have always carried me true.
There's no need to speak to this reality,
no need to cling so tight,
I'll be right here;
all you need do is just set yourself free
and breathe, breathe, deep for me.

As the world spins out of control
and you feel yourself ready to fall,
know my words will catch you
wrap you in their warm embrace
holding you safe as you approach the unknown.
Don't get stuck in the turnstile;
so much awaits you on the other side
and I'll be right here
until you can move on with a smile.
(So) please listen close for awhile.

You will never be far from me
for your words I hold in my heart.
There's no need to worry or fret,
so much of who I am is due to you.
Take this moment and just breathe;
allow my words to ring true,
as time steals all we have left
I'll be right here
until you can see your way through.
I've counted my blessings.  The rest are for you.

Know when at last the curtain falls,
I will continue to cling to the words.
You've shown me their power,
both to strike down & build up,
and I'll wield them as you implored;
may that be my only crime
as I sing out for you
to a tune I have scored
so your words will forever chime;
you said, "Young man don't rely on a sword.
                Cause your words will out live even time."



A note on form:  This is a glosa (of sorts).  While it maintains the traditional opening cabeza (four line by another "poet" - I put poet in quotes because I tend toward lyrics and therefore song writers as apposed to "pure" poets) and it contains four stanza with 10-lines where the tenth line comes from the cabeza, along with the appropriate rhyme of lines 6, 9 & 10, I deviated slightly by using the lines in reverse order as instead of their given order.  I could try to explain my reason for this, but I fear the rambling would turn you away.  Now when have I ever let that stop me.

I had trouble with the cabeza.  As I mentioned it is supposed to be four lines from another artist's piece.  The problem is that in song sometimes you hear breaks where they don't exist or don't hear breaks where they do exist.  There was a time when albums included the lyrics...I suppose some still do.  But more often than not, the internet provides the resource you can't find else where...but who says they're right.  Anyway, it doesn't really matter, I actually have the booklet from the CD and therefore the lines.  What I did not expect was the first line wasn't two lines; either that or it's a typo, regardless....   I had thought that I would split them anyway and take the actual last two lines and join them together.  Then I had the idea to reverse them and well....(I think that's enough of a ramble.)

Inspiration for this piece:  I have to be honest, I'm not quite sure from where this piece erupted.  Outside of the cabeza I had no real direction...so I suppose the piece took control of the pen.  I admit when I first thought about using these lines for a glosa (before I had ironed out the line breaks) I had thought to follow along the opening lines...speaking to the power of words.  I think in the end I stuck more to the "meaning" of the song.  Though to be quite honest the lack of direction makes me wonder if the piece meanders around directionless itself.

An aside:  There was another reason behind this selection today.  This blog recently passed the one year mark.  It was a convergence of three things that lead to this blog and its name.  One of which was the opening of the cabeza.  So...


Monday, March 17, 2014

A Tale of Love (and Woe) – Lovers' Song #3

Princess #3


Knight #3





This series is a branch-off of a ten act ballad called A Tale of Love and Woe.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Desensitize

Phase One

I stare - 5 minutes straight -
at my reflection in the mirror
   and watched
as the tears forged a path down
along my cheek to the corner
   of my mouth
and I'll do it again tomorrow
and the next day & the next day
   until
      the tears run dry

Phase Two 

I will repeat the words over
and over again like a mantra
   while I stare
at my reflection in the mirror
- glistening tears creasing my cheeks -
   and hold
my breath day after day after day
against the emotions threatening me
   until
      the tears run dry

Phase Three

With an expel of breath
I'll stutter the words aloud
   as I stare
at my reflection in the mirror
focused on the glassy eyes
   streaming
tears with each uneasy
word that crosses my lips
   until
      the tears run dry

Phase Four

I will steel myself and look people
in the eye as I pass them by
   my mantra
repeating over and over
tears prickling at the threshold
   still
I will lift my eyes to theirs
and focus on simply breathing
   until
      the tears run dry

Phase Five

Once I conquer
   "you are beautiful"
I will work on
   "your are loved"
followed by
   "you deserve to be happy"


Friday, March 14, 2014

Pom Seeds

flavors
sweet & tart
burst
on my tongue

obliterate
my senses
kiss me again




Inspiration for this piece:  First came the dVerse Poets Pub prompt for Meet the Bar, which asked to write with any and/or all senses except sight.  I tried closing my eyes and seeing what might erupt...but I was lost....  Second, this week I ran across at least two poems that had pomegranates in them; it's been awhile since I tasted this delightful fruit.  Since discovering it a couple years ago, I admit I've been infatuated with it...  Anyway, these two things led to this piece.  Not really 100% sure I hit the mark for the prompt; and am well aware that without the title, this could take on a whole different meaning, but....

A note on form: Apparently I've been a short form mood lately.  This, like my last post, is a septolet.  A cute little number that I've enjoyed exploring in the past particularly through twitter.

An aside:  So, seeing as the poem was inspired by a prompt where sight was not to play a role , I chose to type out this piece above.  I have, however, also tweeted the original version, which was developed with an app called poetics.  This combined words (visually like magnetic poetry) with images.  Can you guess what image lay behind this poem?

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

In the Breeze

wishes
ladened with tears
cling to
frayed edges

still breath
expels
seeds of hope




A note on form:  This little number is known as a septolet.  It is composed of 7 line composed of 14 words set in two stanzas.  (It is supposed to create a picture.)  I have not really found any solid rules on the number of words per stanza, but in most examples I have seen they are almost never evenly broken up 7 and 7.  There is also no specifics on where the break occurs, but most examples break after either the 3rd or 4th line.

While "creating a picture" is still a bit of conundrum, I still enjoy exploring this form.  It is short & sweet and makes for a nice "tweetoetry" piece.


Inspiration for this piece:  Yesterday over at dVerse Poets Pub, the prompt was on micro poetry inspired by macro photography.  I have for the past several years enjoyed (viewing) macro photography.  It seems so interesting how you can get up close and personal with such small entities and see so much detail.  If I felt like a ramble today, I'd probably go into how perfect macro photography relates to poetry (in comparison to typical photography relating to prose), but lucky you I'm not in a rambling mood.  Anyway...it took me a while to find the right photo.  I was actually in search of a different photo that I had seen ages ago, but was unable to dig it up.  Anyway...in the process I found a (several) pictures of dew drops on dandelion seeds...and seeing as I have a thing for dandelions in their puffy form, I ended up captured (no pun intended).

This piece of micropoetry is 82 characters long; this includes spaces and returns as single characters.  Thus keeping within the 140 character limit (and if posted on twitter allows rooms for hashtags and mentions).

The photos that inspired this piece are by Sharon Johnstone.