Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

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

So, without further ado, V is for …Virelai

“The virelai is a French poetic form with alternating rhymes and line lengths. Here are basic guidelines:

• nine lines per stanza
• lines one, two, four, five, seven, and eight have five syllables
• lines three, six, and nine have two syllables
• the five-syllable lines rhyme with each other and the two-syllable lines rhyme with each other to make the following rhyme patter: aabaabaab
• the end rhyme for the short lines continues on in the following stanza
• the final stanza’s short-line end rhyme should be the same as the long-line end rhyme in the opening stanza (to complete the end-rhyme circle)

Waiting Room

We sit in black chairs
silent. And we stare
at those
phones sending us where
madmen rant and dare
to pose
like birds strutting there,
ravens of nightmares
and woes.

—

Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter V.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

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

So, without further ado, U is for …Uni Sunt.

Ok, there are very few (i.e., no) poetry types beginning with U except for this one that I could find. “A number of medieval European poems begin with this Latin phrase meaning “Where are they?” By posing a series of questions about the fate of the strong, beautiful, or virtuous, these poems meditate on the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death. The phrase can now refer to any poetry that treats these themes. One of the most famous ubi sunt poems is “Ballade des dames du temps jadis” (“Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past”) by medieval French poet François Villon, with its refrain “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”

This is my interpretation of this kind of poem, very loose, but given layoff notices at work began to come out yesterday, I think I’m allowed a little latitude…

The World is Too Much

Where can we go, with
troubles all around,
swarming like crowds
at the next blockbuster movie,
growing like appetites longing
for an extra-large pizza?

Let me bury myself
under extra-large hoodies
on my comfy chair,
layered with kitty purrs
until it’s safe to emerge.

—

Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter U.

Welcome to my April 2025 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

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

So, without further ado, T is for …Triversen

“Triversen is a form of poetry created by physician, poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright William Carlos Williams. This 18-line poetic form is created from six single stanzas/sentences where each stanza/sentence is broken into three lines.

Rules

1. Pick a subject, any subject.
2. Write a single stanza that is equal to one sentence and based on a statement or observation.
3. Break the sentence/stanza into three lines (each line is a separate phrase in the sentence). Each line should build on the next to create a mood or story.
4. There is a variable foot of 2-4 beats per line.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 until you have 6 sentences/stanzas.
6. Finish with 6 stanzas of three lines each. The poem should add up to 18 lines.“

She stares at the screen,
finger hovering over keyboard,
mind blank.

A shock of an idea
like a tap on her shoulder,
makes her jump.

She holds out her hand
to grasp but it flutters
through her fingers.

She watches
as it scatters,
burrows back into the earth.

Closing her eyes, she waits,
knowing silence
will beckon the next.

And there it hovers
just out of reach until it lands,
gently, on her knee.

—

Thanks for visiting my 2025 A to Z Challenge – Letter T.