Category Archives: Essays

April Poetry Month-A Word a Day #10

Happy Sunday and Happy 10th day of Poetry Month. Today’s poetry form is a perfect blend of left and right brain…the poem itself, a blend of elements, seasons, earth and sky. It is the perfect poetic storm…at least in my own mind! And you will recognize an old friend, my fairy tree lady.

Because she was so near an oak tree when I first noticed her, I assumed that she was an oak sapling. But this spring I discovered she is, in fact, a dogwood tree!

Serendipitous! Don’t you think? What better form could there be, but the Fibonacci…expanding cyclically into infinity! The whole idea of it makes me smile!

A Fibonacci Poem is a 6-line poem that follows the Fibonacci sequence for syllable count per line. It is expandable if you are mathematically inclined…alas, I am not. So I will stick to the basic form. But for those who want to give the expanded version a try, I’ve included the equation sequence to give you a start! The standard version syllable sequence is 1-1-2-3-5-8. The expanded version is calculated as such:
0+1=1
1+1=2
1+2=3
2+3=5
3+5=8
5+8=13
8+13=21
13+21=34
and so on and so forth…to infinity and beyond

Here then is my take:

 

Photo Credit: Kat Myrman 2016


The Dogwood Lady

She
whose
bare limbs
weathered winter,
now adorns herself in
a flowing gown of dogwood blooms.

kat ~ 10 April 2016


April Poetry Month – A Poem a Day #9

IMG_5200

..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


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


April Poetry Month – A Poem a Day #7

It is Day Seven of Poetry Month! I have chosen the Ottava Rima form for my poem today. An Ottava Rima is an Italian poem that contains of eight lines that rhyme. Each line has eleven syllables and have the rhyme pattern: abababcc.

secret

Maxwell and Winston demonstrating the art of secret telling and keeping. You can trust Winston…he’s not much of a talker. Maxwell on the other hand…not a keeper…of secrets that is! Don’t know what I’d do without that love bug!   🙂

Secret Keeping

A secret to its keeper is a burden.
It’s an obligation true friends take to heart.
The teller of such treasure must be certain
they can trust their confidant to do their part.
For many have been burned by indiscretions
of a rogue who thinks of gossip as an art…
They say, in time the truth will be revealed,
but sooner if your “friend” is prone to squeal!

kat ~ 7 April 2016


Echoes of my Neighborhood

Happy Thursday! Last week I shared the beginning buds of greenery in my neighborhood. This week I am sharing some of the first blooms in my humble garden. I do not have a green thumb, so any flowers that do manage to show up are miracles to me. Aside from the flowering weeds that I love until they overtake my lawn, I am fortunate to be blessed by a few more cultivated friends, perennials who visit me every year around this time. And so without further adieu, I give you this week’s installment…First Blooms!

phlox

Creeping Phlox

Roses2

First few Roses of the season, dew still clinging to the leaves!

Roses1

…And the other one that found hidden in the back of the bush. I wish I had smell-o-vision so you could enjoy not only their beauty in appearance but their wonderful fragrance as well! 🙂

See other “neighbourhoods” or submit snapshots of your own corner of the world at a cooking pot and twisted tales. Thanks to Jacqueline for hosting this fun challenge!