Tag Archives: introtopoetry

The Future of the Bard

By Unknown artist (manner of Thomas Stothard) - 0QHOMxCB-XDE7Q at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22128907

By Unknown artist (manner of Thomas Stothard) – 0QHOMxCB-XDE7Q at Google Cultural Institute maximum zoom level, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22128907

Perchance if one would live to see
The bard forgotten as time passed thee
If Hamlet’s question was ne’er to be
And forgotten Othello’s tragedy
Bubble, bubble, and trouble that day
When lost are king John, Henry two and three
Would Julius still say ‘et tu brute’
Or Cleopatra hold dying Anthony
 
Yet somehow all the world is still a stage
A midsummer night dream when day is done
May the poet’s words endure each new age
Perhaps it is much ado about none
And maybe it’s silly even to fret
Forgetting Romeo and Juliet

 

This was for the day 10 prompt of the Intro to Poetry where the prompt is future and the challenge is to write a Sonnet. Since Shakespeare wrote many sonnets I challenged myself to write about the future of the bard using his style of iambic pentameter and his typical ababcdcd efefgg rhyme scheme. Was a fun try to use some of the bard’s work to inspire the words of the poetry.

 

Flooded Landscape

You drank and you drank and you drank
But the floodwaters covered your face
As you drown under the smothering waters
Which seem to pour endlessly from the sky
Your skin had been dried and cracked yesterday
Baked and hardened in the summer sun
Your clay mask peeling flaking away in the heat
But now it is washed away by the continual beat
Of millions of tiny drops fall cold upon your body
And yet while the thunderstorm rages around you
You drink and you drink and you drink
And you will outlast the storm like all those before
The waters will recede as you trade
Your faded brown summer garb
For a beautiful dress in shades of green

Finally got time to get back to the Intro to Poetry, this being day 9 of 10 with the prompt being a landscape and the challenge being to use apostrophe where the poem addresses and object (usually personified) in the second person

Life May Be Good…

Dosso and Battista Dossi, Democrito (1540)

Dosso and Battista Dossi, Democrito (1540)

Life may not be fair but it can still be good
Taking the moment to savor food and drink
The embrace of a friend or the lover’s kiss
To enjoy the quest for knowledge and wisdom
Or to delight in the produce of one’s hands

Life may not be fair but it can still be good
When one doesn’t obsess about one getting more
And another getting less than their works deserve
When one doesn’t let fame or prosperity define
The enjoyment of the day or the measure of life

Life may not be fair but it can still be good
When one accepts the gifts one has with gratitude
And celebrates the relationships one has in life
Remaining thankful for all that the seasons bring
For life can be good even when it isn’t fair

This is the poem inspired by the day 8 prompt of intro to poetry (pleasure) using anaphora (repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a verse). This was also inspired by book of Ecclesiastes which I’ve been working my way through over the last several weeks

Banana Pie

155620-425x281-Banana-meringue-pie

Banana pie was childhood’s sweet treat
That for special occasions we would eat
But only on the first day
Would the fruit looking nice stay
So perhaps that is why it was rare
That we would indulge in this sweet fare

This is day seven of the Intro to poetry challenge where the prompt is flavor. I made it short in case I had the time to make it a found poem (which can be like the ransom note assembling the media from other places). This is one of those flavors I love from childhood and as an adult as well

The Treacherous Sea

My avatar wades out into the vast sea of information
Fishing for the truth in the midst of the murky waters
Made brown by the silt of data that flows down river
And the runoff of the manure deposited upon the fields
Yet, the sea itself is a living and crafty organism
It knows the quarry I seek and it sees my reflection on its face
It watches the places I sail to in my quest for knowledge
Yet, it only surrenders the secrets it is willing to show
But sometimes I wonder who watches who more
Does the sea
See me?
For in the vastness of the ocean I am so small
And am I merely sharing the data I choose to show
Upon the screens of the digital sea as bait
Or have I already been hooked?

This is the Intro to Poetry day 6 based on the prompt of a screen and trying to use enjambment (a sudden break in a line for effect)

Thinning

When did my hair get so thin
That it no longer protects my scalp skin
Yet it never lays flat
After wearing a hat
Oh how wonderfully vain I have been

Several days behind now in the Intro to Poetry prompts, but this was a fun one. To take an imperfection as the prompt and then to attempt to put it into a limerick. And while I am still glad to have as much hair as I do at almost 44 (especially with the men on both side losing much more) there isn’t as much as there once was.

IMG_0751

Vacation

So often the journey of life is told like an epic tale
Where we go out to conquer the monsters that haunt our world
Yet, sometimes a trip can be merely an adventure
Or a time to retreat from the constant cares of the life of labor
A time to encounter a forest of firs and ferns and pines
To climb a mountain only to see the view of the sunrise on the ocean
Seeking out the beauty of the waterfalls and the lakes
Cruising out on the ocean to see creatures the size of leviathan
Playing in the cold water of the seas among the krill and plankton
Rafting down the river and resting in the summer sun
Eating from the bounty of the sea or simply enjoying a campfire smores
A story where no monsters haunt the garden of Eden
That for a short time we get to inhabit and to dine on its harvest

The Intro to Poetry challenge, day 4 is to write a poem about a journey using a simile

Picture from one of our treks near Bingham, Maine from our vacation this June

Picture from one of our treks near Bingham, Maine from our vacation this June

Long Lost

By Alfred Jensen (1859-1935) - The Bridgeman Art Library, Object 225483, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24979280

By Alfred Jensen (1859-1935) – The Bridgeman Art Library, Object 225483, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24979280

At the time we were inseparable, two mates encountering life
But time has its way of pulling apart and placing an ocean between
Colleagues and friend braving the stormy seas of life
Divided as the four winds blew our sails differently
Every now and again I look back across the seas of time
For friends who traveled with me for a part of my journey
Going along as we sailed the currents for the time allotted
However currents shift and winds pull and times separate
I’ve had so many friends in the various ports I’ve called home
Journeying like a merchant marine through my life’s journey
Kindness encountered and given from one friend to another
Long lost except in our memories and recollections of the journey

This is a part of the intro to poetry posts, day 3 where the prompt is friend and the challenge is to use an acrostic (line beginning with a progression of letters either to spell something or like above alphabetically)

What Lies Beneath

IMG_0751

There is a kindness in the smile that reflects the big heart that lies within
Where tenderness and tenacity together toil to transform the world in little ways
For there is a fiery resolve that refuses to release its hopes and dreams
There is a curiosity in the eyes that are continually seeking and wondering
And the ears that sometimes hear a little too clearly bringing in the sights and sounds
Of the world to the quick mind that lies beneath, continually trying to make sense
Of the experiences of the day and the wisdom of the ages, taking into itself
The cares and the worries of the moments and turning them over and over
Looking for the meaning in the moment and the wisdom in the worry and weariness
Perhaps that kind smile and curious eyes and thinning hairline together form
A window to a soul that is a fusion of the best of the saint and the sinner
For what lies beneath is an soul that is older than its years and kinder than its scars

This is a part of the #introtopoetry prompt where the topic is a face and the challenge it to use allteration. I didn’t originally intend to use my own face but it ended up being helpful in working through some of the worries of the moment