Light

This magnificent photo is courtesy of Tracey Johnson on Instagram @tj10cows

The mood switches from sunny smiles to brooding anger

And Sky begins to grumble its discontent.

The purples, pinks, yellows, bright greens and whites of spring have appeared,

To compete with Sky’s spectacular cerulean blue

Which through the winter has been alone in bringing a canopy of colour to lift dreary spirits.

It’s the same every year, roars Sky, hurling its scorn upon the earth.

Swirling winds and swollen raindrops are sent to mete out

Punishment on the trees which try to usurp Sky’s dominance over all it surveys

And early blossoms are dashed from the offending branches.

Yet its dark ferocity only makes the light more intense

And the trees glow in a display of defiance.

But they are no match for Sky, who, after the crashing storm, smiles once again

In triumph, its mastery over nature’s earth bound miracles reaffirmed.

A trouble shared is a trouble halved

Challenged to write a Sonnet, and having already tackled the Spenserian form, I decided to have a go at a Petrarchan version. This format has two quatrains, each line with 11 syllables, following the ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme. The final sestet can be either CDCDCD or CDE CDE, but the lines are also each of 11 syllables.

Photo Credit: Brent Ninaber on Unsplash

To experience what it is that you feel

I want to walk a mile and more in your shoes

And there perhaps will discover hidden clues

To where the pain lies and how to help you heal.

There are things with which I know you have to deal

I have to guess, if to tell me you refuse

I see only what you let me, what you choose

A life of onion layers I want to peel

I see you in your sadness, your mood turns blue

The weariness that seeps deep into the bone

So open up your heart and let me help you

It can’t hurt more than it does to be alone

I am always here when other friends are few

With me be safe, your inner demons make known.

Rain, rain, go away

We recently experienced an unusually prolonged period of rain in Johannesburg, and despite my Mancunian roots, it took its toll on my mood and I was thoroughly fed up with the incessant downpours by the time I wrote these 3 haikus, all with one theme.

Photo Credit: Artyom Kulikov on Unsplash

1.

Storm clouds that gather

Black as night, threatening to

Release their burden

2.

Rain falls in torrents

From the sodden cloudy skies

Drenching all below

3.

Rain streaks the windows

Rivulets track down the panes

Collecting in pools

Twisted Lips

A poem about when love turns to hate

Photo Credit: Stock Adobe

Pure vitriol spews from your mouth and

I wonder where the words have been stored.

A poison stream of malice

Gushes up from a deep well of fetid emotions.

From the roiling depths, spite gurgles in your throat.

Your lips form shapes I have never seen before

Contorted, pinched, snarling

Not the lips I have kissed a thousand times

Or the ones that gently whispered  ‘I love you’.

ACROSTIC

Writing poetry is something I have come back to recently, and I am learning styles and formats I have never heard of before (see Villanelle, for example). Acrostic was one such term that was last month’s challenge on www.deadlinesforwriters.com – it is self explanatory, I think from the below effort.

Anyone who thinks writing to order is a

Cinch, has never tried to create according to the

Rules

Of the game.

Should you wish to give it a

Try, be my guest

I welcome your best efforts but don’t

Cry when it doesn’t work out.

Opposites Attract

This short free verse was written in response to the prompt ‘Rhyme’ but contriving to find matchy matchy words just didn’t work for me so I interpreted it a little differently.

There is no rhyme or reason why this should work.

Our lives have been vastly different

But we arrived here at the same place,

Looking for the same thing, in life’s autumn season.

We have discovered a space where we can be ourselves

Inside but outside of each other’s worlds.

If Love Should Die

Photo Credit: Sasha Freemind on Unsplash

So I wrote an actual sonnet. Three quatrains and a closing couplet, each line must have 10 syllables and a there is a specific rhyming pattern. Mine is a Spenserian sonnet after Sir Edmund Spenser, the first poet to modify Petrarch’s form.

I love when new love begins to flourish

An unknown person there to discover

My body and soul with newness are nourished

I rejoice at the touch of my lover.

Sometimes when nights together are over

And I leave him in the wake of the dawn

I am lost and at his gate I hover

From his warm bed and arms I have been torn.

But if my new love leaves and I must mourn

I will go quietly without a cry

As if the love itself was never born.

I will not beg, plead for another try.

I will leave him with dignity and grace

And never show the tears that streak my face.

Curtain Call

Photo Credit: By Gwen Ong on Unsplash

I have forgotten all the pretty words

And the clever, witty lines

I had rehearsed over and over.

They were light and vivacious

Just how you make me feel.

And the closing line, well you know how it was supposed to end.

I love you.

But instead of sticking to the script, you improvised

and took the words out of my mouth.

They have been replaced with a bitter taste

And my mind has gone blank.

The prompt from the wings falls silent

I am no longer your leading lady, there is an understudy.

My performance has been found wanting.

The final curtain falls and I take my bow. No applause. No encore.

It’s simply the end.

Your colour is green

This is a poem about the destructive personality trait that is jealousy.

How has it taken you so long

to show your true colour?

It is a livid green,

That was running like a thick deposit

Buried deep below the surface waiting to be mined.

But I didn’t detect it, I didn’t drill through your veneer.    

Your pristine exterior is now scarred with the welts

Where your jealousy has been exposed,

Laid bare, 

Fault lines across the landscape of our lives.

I thought you were someone else

But you are not that man

You are less.

Your toxic green core has caused the ground to shift and fracture.

Our love now lies buried beneath the rockfall

Of your recriminations.