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, V is for ...Verse. “Verse poetry can come in different forms such as free verse or blank verse. A free verse poem has no set meter; the contents flow freely to the author’s design. A blank verse poem has no rhyming theme, but it does involve an iambic pentameter which is a meter of ten syllables such as the plays written by William Shakespeare.“

Not Today

Today is not a good day
for writing poetry

Today is a day
for coughing and congestion
fever and headaches

I will write a better poem
tomorrow.

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

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, U is for ...How can there be no forms of poetry beginning with U? The only option I can find is called an Ubi-Sunt. “A medieval commonplace that reveals the mutability of all things, the loss of all through death, by posing a series of questions that ask where the strong, the beautiful, and the good have gone.”

Where do we go now?
Now that we are dead
and dust and ashes?

Where are those that came before?
Only in graveyards
and buried in war-torn fields.

Where do the beautiful and the good go at the end?
Into the same ground,
Under the same trees,
marked by the same stone
as us all.

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

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, T is for ...Tetractys “Tetractys, a poetic form consisting of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). Tetractys can be written with more than one verse, but must follow suit with an inverted syllable count. Tetractys can also be reversed and written 10, 4, 3, 2, 1. Double Tetractys maybe written as: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1, and a Triple Tetractys as: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 10.“

On Hold

Hold
For you
we play tunes
to entertain
now wait until they entertain no more

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

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, 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…

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, P is for ...Palindrome. “A Palindrome poem is a word, phrase or line of verse which reads the same forwards or backwards e.g. ‘Able was I ere I saw Elba.’

Hope

That belief I am happy
Stops with
Sadness washing over,
Blacking out the sun.

Blacking out the sun,
Sadness washing over
Stops. With
That belief, I am happy.

(and sushi…)

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

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, O is for ....Ottava Rima. “An ottava rima is a type of poem which is composed of 8 eleven-syllable lines, with an a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c rhyme scheme. It was developed in the late thirteenth century and early fourteenth century for drama and religious songs by Tuscan poets.”

Not the Way to Spend a Saturday Night

Hospitals are nasty places to spend nights
in emergency room chairs designed only
by sadists. Or maybe at doctors’ delights.
One thing for sure, you can never be lonely.
Look over there, at the nurses in your sights,
And patients all over, handsome to homely.
When your name is finally called, you jump up
and hope you don’t have to fill too many cups.

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

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, N is for ....Nonet. “A nonet is a type of poem which has nine lines. The nonet poetic arrangement comprises of an unusual format, where the first line is made up of nine syllables, the second eight, the third seven and continues, until the final one (9th line) which features only one syllable. The nine line poem can feature any subject or theme, and rhyming is not compulsory. However, it’s vital that a nonet poem flows smoothly and tells a complete thought.”

An evening treat and nice surprise was
going out for dinner last night.
No cooking, no cleaning for
me is a gift. So we
splurged on parpadelle
with mushrooms and
bacon in
creamy
sauce.

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

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, M is for .... Monoku. “A Monoku is a type of poem which is made up of a single horizontal line. Traditionally considered as a haiku writing, it is currently accepted as a variant of the haiku form of poetry. Unlike the Haiku which is made up of three outlines with a total of seventeen syllables, Monoku features a single line consisting of seventeen syllables or even fewer. It contains a pause brought about by speech rhythm with slight or no punctuation. The first letter should not be capitalized – but instead written in lower case.“

7am is too early — for heavy machinery.

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

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