cooing dove, grey morning
perched above in mourning
~kat
Day 29’s Essence for Jane Dougherty’s Daily Essence Poem Challenge. You guessed it! Another dreary day in the mid-Atlantic, Blue Ridge Mountain valley. I love the sound of morning doves in the grey.
A close up view of White Clover. It is hard to believe that this is a common weed!
It is day 30. The final day of poetry month and my challenge to myself to do a new poem and form each day. And surprise! I did it!
For the record, this month I explored the following poetry forms: Alouette, Free Form, Lune, Cleave, Shadorma, Palindrome, Ottava Rima, Triolet, Cascade, Fibonacci, Lai, Imayo, Sijo, Luc Bat, Epulaeryu, Terzanelle, Tetractys, HexSonetta, Sedoka (a Katouta x2), Minute, Tanka, Etheree, Than-Bauk, Bref Double, Alliterisen, Haiku, Limerick, Reverse (not to be confused with my own quirky creation, the ReVerse…more on this later…), and finally a revisit of the Cleave…I had forgotten I already did this form and it is, after all, one of my favorite forms! Of course there are so many other forms…classical as well as new forms being created to this day. This brings me to my ReVerses which have nothing in common with the Reverse poetry form.
As is my weekly practice, I like to look back, lifting a line from each poem of the previous week to create a ReVerse of my words. it is something I started doing years ago when I first started to write. I always have a favorite line in each poem and thought it would be fun to create a new poem using those favorite lines. I have not found a form that does this in all my research, though there is the Cento, which is a collection of lines from the poems of several authors – not a writer’s own work.
Inspired by the many classical and experimental new forms, I am left with only one solution. To create my own new poetry form!
And so I give you the Shi Sai (pronounced SH-ī with a heavy inflection on the Sh and a silent second s). It is Japanese for “re verse” or “re poem”. I used a Japanese translation because many of the earliest forms of poetry originated in Asia. And it has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? To make it official:
The Shi Sai, a form created by Kat Myrman in April 2016, is a poem created by taking one line of verse from several poems of an author’s own collection. The shi sai is done as a review of a series or collection of poems and therefore, each line should flow in chronological order of the dates the poems were written (from oldest to new). The lines chosen should be the author’s favorite from each poem. This form works best if the author resists the temptation to read the full new poem before all the verses have been added. (It helps one to resist the impulse to change a line to make it “fit”)
And so, I give you my shi sai then, on this last day of April. A look back at an amazing month that has one last story to tell!
something’s amiss with your mind
a dizzy streak of laser precision
it won’t be a secret
time to weep, to let things go suspended in cerulean blue
new life on the wing
moments of clarity
they say in time the truth will be revealed,
like moth to flame is drawn into the light
off to do our business then
it follows strict rhyme
minds, spinning in sound bites,
my garden thrives in a compost
releasing is an art, you know
drunken noodles sweating
I remember you in spring
extremes of longing, that bend on a breeze
our secret morning trysts
promise in a glass half full
bestowing grace
between cool silken bedsheets
heavy droplets descend
waning runs red
souls revealed line by beautiful line
waxing poetic perfection in words
graced in amaranthine blush
then one day she fell down
you hardly speak anymore and
turn to ash aching for warmthkat ~ 30 April 2016
Happy Thursday! Our 21st poetry form is the Tanka, an ancient Japanese poetry form consisting of five lines with the syllable sequence: 5/7/5/7/7 for a total of 31 syllables. The word Tanka, means “little song” and was often presented as one continuous line or stream of thought. The modern American version breaks the tanka into 5 separate lines.
7th century nobles in the Japanese Imperial court engaged in tanka writing competitions and it was also a popular form of love note given to partner after an evening spent together.
Tankas can be written about any topic and should also contain an emotional element. It is not necessary to give a Tanka poem a title.
I woke to birdsong
between cool silken bedsheets
still damp from our tryst,
hoping to glimpse you sleeping
but you had already gone.
~kat – 21 April 2016
I have a busy day tomorrow so I’m posting poetry month, day 20 a day early. The Minute Poem is a rhyming verse form consisting of 12 lines of 60 syllables written in strict iambic meter. The poem is formatted into 3 stanzas of 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4 syllables. The rhyme scheme is as follows: aabb, ccdd, eeff.
While on my way to work this morning a strange storefront caught my eye, in particular the statue in the window. I knew I needed to stop by on my way home to explore it a bit more.
It is a strange, verging on creepy, little place. A small sign on a side window says it’s a Catholic museum. The statues and relics contained within share the space with lawn chairs, debris and dust.
I couldn’t help feeling a bit nostalgic, remembering the unfailing devotion of my grandmother who attended Novena Masses every morning and taught me to believe in the mystical and miraculous.
Odd as it all was, I felt blessed by those memories of my childhood and embraced in grace.
Even there behind a pane of glass, surrounded by piles of junk and buried under layers of dust…even there, miracles are possible.
Here then is my Minute Poem…
NOTE: I had mistaken the identity of this lovely “lady”. She is, in fact Saint Therese of Lisieux. So…to be accurate, I have tweaked the poem. It doesn’t change the meter or the mystical quality. A rose by another name is still sweet. ❤
Storefront Saint
Hail fair Lady full of woe
no votive’s glow
to warm your feet
here on Fifth Street.As weary travelers pass by
none catch your eye
lacking vision
for apparitions.Strange Storefront Saint Therese, you wait
bestowing grace
upon the few
who notice you.~kat – 20 April 2016
We are over the hump, day 16! Today I am exploring the Terzanelle. For starters, isn’t it a lovely word to say…Terzanelle. 🙂 It is a combination of the Villanelle and the Terza Rima poetry forms.
A 19-line poem consisting of five interlocking triplets/tercets, the last stanza is a
quatrain with the first and third lines of the first triplet appearing as refrains. The middle line of each triplet is repeated, reappearing as the last line of the succeeding triplet with the exception of the center line of the next-to-the-last stanza which appears in the quatrain.
Yikes! Sounds complicated, but it’s not. Seeing it in diagram will hopefully dispel any confusion. The rhyme and refrain scheme for the triplets is as follows:
1. A
2. B
3. A
4. b
5. C
6. B
7. c
8. D
9. C
10. d
11. E
12. D
13. e
14. F
15. E
Ending Type 1:
16. f
17. A
18. F
19. A
Ending Type 2:
16. f
17. F
18. A
19. A
Each line of the poem should be the same metrical length.
Spring Longing
I remember you in spring
When the rose bush bursts in bloom
I remember you in springIts sweet fragrance heavy looms
The soft breeze caressing me
When the rose bush bursts in bloomWaves of longing crushing me
Your breath dusting my warm skin
The soft breeze caressing meBreaking my heart once again
Do you ever think of us?
Your breath dusting my warm skinLove’s refrain fades in the dust
Oh to hear your voice again
Do you ever think of us?Can’t accept this bitter end
Oh to hear your voice again
I remember you in spring
I remember you in springkat ~ 16 April 2016
like mercury colliding... 