Tag Archives: verse prompt

Now is Not the Time…

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From Creative Commons at Pixabay.com

‘Troy passed away in one high funeral gleam,
And Usna’s children died.’  – W.B. Yeats

Now is Not the Time…

the burning stench of liquid iron, oozing
clouds of ether, billowing from hell’s hot gate
midst crimson pools of life on pews, congealing
silent screams of innocents who met a too soon fate
with cool resign they sacrifice the children
offering thoughts and prayers as consolation
while coddling the vain and self-indulgent
as more blood spills they crush all condemnation
it makes no sense, this detour from all reason
building up tall walls just keep monsters inside
until this ends, the meek remain in season
don’t believe them when they say they care…they lie

~kat

Not sure what style of poem this is. It started out at a Rispetto, but I had more to say that two stanza’s would allow. So here it is then, a modified verse that rhymes and plods along in an iambic cadence some 11 syllables per line. Of course this is the ninth day of Jane Dougherty’s A Month with Yeats. Today’s inspiration comes once again from‘The Rose of the World’ by W.B. Yeats.


Remembering We

‘The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;’  -W.B.Yeats

Remembering We

she’s bleeding out in back-wood hollows
where stone monuments honor fools
raging from coal soot nostrils
pale faced freedom fighters
who stand for anthems
and love Jesus
on Sundays
yet fear
death
but
slowly
they come forth,
silenced voices
like seed pods bursting,
innocence reborn to
overwhelm the bloody mess
and hope’s pursuit of happiness,
people who remember they are we

~kat

A Nonet/Reverse Nonet* For Jane Dougherty’s A Month with Yeats – Day Eight Challenge inspired by the verse above from the poem ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B. Yeats.

*A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line eight syllables, the third line seven syllables, etc… until line nine finishes with one syllable.


Beautiful Death

‘…stars, grown old

In dancing silver-sandalled on the sea,

Sing in their high and lonely melody.’ -W.B.Yeats

cool nor-eastern zephyr whispers
evening vespers
autumn drifting
seasons shifting

leaves of yellow, orange and red
settle in beds
windswept and tossed
wilted by frost

learning the art of letting go
the ebb and flow
arrested breath
beautiful death

~kat

A Minute Poem (8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4 syllables. The rhyme scheme is as follows: aabb, ccdd, eeff) for Jane Dougherty’s A Month With Yeats – Day Seven. Today’s verse,shown above, are from ‘To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time’ by W.B. Yeats.


Into Oblivion

‘Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven’.
from “The Cold Heaven”, by W.B. Yeats

never enough, no never
enough, I sense her
monstrous pie-face
leering, spy her bony
hands convulsing, tormented
by her minding-numbing
cackling, tock-tick-tick-tock-
tick…even her minions, those
maniacal demons, strobe
bloody, red in the dark
murky gloam, would that
the sun and moon were
enough, but no, I am in
race with this fiend, a
relentless taskmaster who
tolls every hour, with nary
a second to smell
a wild flower, another
day slips into oblivion

~kat

A daylight savings time fallback protest poem for Jane Dougherty’s A month with Yeats: Day Six Challenge. I woke up a hour too early and drove home from my 9 to 5 in the dark. I do not like this time change…no, I do not! 😨


Blame the Muse

 “… the dark folk who live in souls
Of passionate men, like bats in the dead trees;” —W.B. Yeats

705px-The_Scream

The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch

incessant goading fills our heads
to do the dreaded things we fear
passion riles the weakest hosts
and blames the muse

but muses simply plant the seed
it’s passion’s fire that drives men mad
surrendering to wild extremes
renders us razed

yet middling is not the course
that moves faint hearts, nor feeds the soul
embracing darkness, shadow, light
each bearing virtues of their own
our angst assuaged

~kat

For Jane Dougherty’s Yeat’s Challenge Day 2 based on the verse above and using the “new” form suggesting a metered trio of stanzas with the following syllable count: 8 8 8 4 8 8 8 4 8 8 8 8 4 .