Monthly Archives: April 2016

April Poetry Month – A Poem a Day #9

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..This is Maxwell’s “Mom…MOM…wake UP MAAAMAAA…I have to go potty!!!” look…at 4 am!!!

It is day nine of National Poetry Month. I have chosen a Tercet Cascade for my poetry form today, prompted by a middle of the night wake up call…that has lapsed into early morning. No rest for my weary monkey brain.

I do love my very big puppy Maxwell…but 4 am Max??? Sheesh! Give your old mom a break! As I type he is blissfully snoring at my side. Yep…gotta love him!

At any rate, this poem won’t win any awards. Haha! A bit of whimsy, a touch of angst perhaps, but importantly, true to the prescribed form…hey, what do you expect at 4 am!

A side note…my router went offline in the middle of this, so most of the time was spent FINDING the documentation in order to reconfigure the blasted thing so I could log online to post today’s little ditty! I mention this in case you were wondering if this Cascade poem took me 3 hours to write! 🙂 I will need to revisit this poetry form one day and give it proper homage …but for now, I need coffee!

Here is a description of a basic Cascade. There are no hard fast rules regarding rhyme or meter. It involves taking a line from the first stanza, sequentially, to repeat as the last line of each additional stanza. The number of stanzas depends on the number of lines you use for the initial one. You can set it up as a three-line stanza (Tercet) or a four-line stanza (quatrain). You might even expand to a 5 line or 6 line..the sequence would be the same, looking something like this: for a Tercet – ABC-abA-cdB-efC / for a Quatrain – ABCD-abcA-defB-ghiC-jklD…you get the idea!


Potty Break

Roused awake at 4 am
for my puppy’s potty break
interrupted REM

Off to do our business then
half asleep and fuzzy brained
roused awake at 4 am!

How much longer must he take?
I am losing patience fast
for my puppy’s potty break

Those who call dogs “man’s best friend”
likely never lost a wink
Interrupted REM!

kat~9 April 2016


Cinquain Part 2

My brain was apparently scattered when I penned my cinquains for Jane Dougherty’s challenge this week. I completely overlooked the prompt words! We were instructed to use at least one of the following: Fly, lightning, verdant, unfurl, softly.

To make up for this oversight I decided to use all five. (All in fun of course and for the love of poetry…) But Jane, I did sweat a few drops of blood over this one! 🙂 

P.S. Do I get extra credit? Heehee…kidding of course! 😉

Peace out and have a great weekend peeps! 

Photo Credit: Pixabay – https://pixabay.com/photo-84660/

 

Raptor
wings unfurled
Flies the verdant landscape
Swoops like lightning, softly landing…
Nesting

kat ~ 8 April 2016


April Poetry Month – A Poem a Day #8

Today’s form is the Triolet. I like this form because it contains a repeating refrain throughout. It gives the piece a romantic flair. The form seems simple enough. A Triolet contains 8 lines, usually written in iambic tetrameter (the common way) – 8 syllables with four metrical feet (or as I like to call them ‘Heartbeats’…da-dum da-dum da-dum dadum).  Or if you’re looking for a challenge, iambic pentameter (the English version) – as it’s name suggests (penta), this version has 10 syllables per line with five metrical feet. The Rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB (with the capital letter lines repeating – or in other words, line one repeats at line 4 and line 7 and line 2 repeats at line 8)

Of course I like a challenge! 🙂 So I tried the British version. Repetition of the lines does make it rather melancholy. Or perhaps it was the topic I chose…Poor old sap fell head over heels only to be turned away.  It’s a quite common scenario you know. Such is the drama of love…:)

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Unrequited

you glowed so like a candle in the night
flashing licks of amber wooing me
like moth to flame is drawn into the light
you glowed so like a candle in the night
I tried to turn away with all my might
as I drew near, you swiftly set me free
you glowed so like a candle in the night
flashing licks of amber wooing me.

kat ~ 8 April 2016

 


Friday’s Word of the Day Haiku – Raconteuse

Happy Friday! Time for another look at dictionary.com’s word of the day. Today we have a French word, raconteuse, the feminine version of raconteur. It’s another one of those lovely older words,that entered the English language in the mid nineteenth century. Both words are rooted in the French word, raconter, which means “to tell”.

I imagine some nineteenth century raconteuse, if she were a time traveler, might have a blog here in the 21st. In times of old, only a handful of people might be delighted and entertained by her stories. Today she could have a global audience!

Here’s the Haiku…

Raconteuse Haiku

Centuries ago
A raconteuse used parchment
Now she’d have a blog.

kat ~ 8 April 2016


Memories/Rain – A Few Cinquain

For Jane Dougherty’s 25th Poetry Challenge…the Cinquain.  <- Click to learn more, read other cinquain poems or enter your own!


memories

photos
faded sepia
glimpses of past moments
sentimental reminiscence
specters


Rain

storm clouds
raging tempests
billowing blustering
then in a flash and a boom gone
rainbows

kat ~ 7 April 2016