Welcome to my April 2024 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with picture), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, S is for ...Sestina. “A Sestina is a type of poem which consists of six stanzas. A stanza is a lyrical form of lines with a set meter. In a Sestine, each stanza has six lines, so six stanzas with six lines each. The end of a Sestina concludes with a final Stanza that consists of only three lines. This is called an envoy. An envoy is a concluding three-lined stanza at the end of a poem. An envoy is used to comment on the person or subject introduced in the Sestina. A sestina is not meant to rhyme as most poems do. It does, however, repeat the last six words of the first stanza during the rest of the poem.“

Prairie Winter

Winter winds bite
Where prairie grasses flow
Across fields of grain,
Culverts and ditches
Piling snow in places
Hidden from eyes.

Tiny peering eyes
Find only traces to bite
Off branches in places
Where they sit under creek-flow,
Cowering in ditches
Hoping for hints of grain.

Leftover husks of grain,
Rotting potato eyes,
Roll into ditches
So deer and rats can bite,
Finding food among the flow
Of sleeting, slippery places.

Snow curls round in places,
Burying fields and grain.
Whiteness covers ground in flow.
Looking out, bright blinking eyes,
Teeth chatter in the cold bite
While shifting piles fill ditches.

Cars slide off road into ditches
From black ice littering places
On the highway. Sharp bite
Of sleet like pellets of grain
Sending shots, stinging eyes.
Tears begin to flow.

Over flat prairie grass flow
Rivers of snow and ice running into ditches,
Covering creatures, hiding dead eyes,
Swallowing leftover green places,
Crushing unharvested fields of grain.
Knifing into the body, gusts bite.

In bare ditches winter’s bite
Flows into remnants of grain,
Where eyes search for safe places.

Thanks for visiting my 2024 A to Z Challenge – Letter S.

Guess I’m kind of going rogue too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2024 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with picture), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, R is for ...Rondeau. “A rondeau (plural rondeaux) is a form of French poetry with 15 lines written on two rhymes. Variant forms may have 10 or 13 lines. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern. It was customarily regarded as a challenge to arrange for these refrains to contribute to the meaning of the poem in as succinct and poignant a manner as possible. The rondeau consists of thirteen lines of eight syllables, plus two refrains (which are half lines, each of four syllables), employing, altogether, only three rhymes. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows: (1) A A B B A (2) A A B with refrain: C (3) A A B B A with concluding refrain C. The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line.“

Well, it’s Rondeau-like…

Spring

The tulips bloom, the grass turns green
We wait until the bees are seen
to call the time of summer dear.
Although it feels as if it’s near
it’s not – be patient, be not keen

for time to pass too fast between
seasons. Sit back and rest serene
for spring, spring is here.

Sun shines bright when day is clean,
setting later, new routine.
Clouds and rain we no longer fear,
for frosty windows shed not a tear,
the winter’s gone, check out the scene
for spring, spring is here.

Thanks for visiting my 2024 A to Z Challenge – Letter R.

Guess I’m kind of going rogue too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2024 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (A poem a day…with picture), and of course, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, Q is for ...Quatrain. “A Quatrain is a type of poem which has its lines of verse grouped in four-line stanzas. It is one of the most common stanza forms in English verse, and can be traced back to the ancient literary traditions of Rome, Greece and China. The term quatrain may refer to a single stanza or the entire poem.“

Streaks of light shoot from the sky
We stop in tracks to gaze.
I say I can’t believe my eyes,
Is it the end of days?

Thanks for visiting my 2024 A to Z Challenge – Letter Q.

Guess I’m kind of going rogue too…although I do like using the “official” letters…