Words are superfluous They roll off my tongue Like the sweat on a labourer’s back Toiling in the midday sun. Over and over words failed me When I first held you on my breast Unimagined pain, unbridled joy As you wailed your first little breath. Words were never adequate Watching you evolve From tiny steps…
From the bedside of a dying man.
Ask me what the finger wrote and I would stop, startled into visions of pages of white which I pencilled with numbers in blue tracing streets in blackened rivers on an old map gathering dust the paper yellowed by time, corners thumbed into shreds turning as brittle as the parchment skin of your hands that…
A poem by Lily Myers
To a Girl Who Doesn’t Yet Know “First you are untouched. I won’t say pure, which brings to mind white dresses and eyes that linger on the fabric like oil stains. But untouched; in a world of your own making, dancing around a rainbow scarf (the inexplicable object of your adoration) on the carpet of…
Z: ZaniLa Rhyme
The ZaniLa Rhyme, a form created by Laura Lamarca consists 4 lines per stanza. The rhyme scheme is ABCB and a syllable count of 9/7/9/9 per stanza. Line 3 contains an internal rhyme which is repeated in every odd numbered stanza. Even numbered stanzas contain the same line but it is swapped. The ZaniLa rhyme…
Phone Call
i dial your number deep in the darkness, a phone rings i see you reach for the receiver i hear the smile in your voice my lips quaver as i share my day my eyes mist as you tell me it’s not the end of the world and everything will be okay. i dial…
Y: Yueh Fu
During the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e – 220 a.d.) in China, popular songs were returned to prominence by the Music Bureau (yueh fu), a government bureau charged with the collection of folk songs, ballads and ceremonial music. These songs, marked by a spontaneous lyricism and a greater formal freedom, in turn exercised considerable influence on…
X: Xenophanic Poem
Xenophanes was an ancient Ionian/Greek philosopher and poet who lived roughly at the same time as Homer and Hesiod – in the pre-Socratic era of philosophy. While his name may be lesser known, his influence on philosophy and literature is not. His writing (such that remains; he eccentrically wrote almost nothing down) is marked by…
W: Wayra
The Wayra (Quechua – wind ) is a popular verse form of Peru and Bolivia. It appears it originated in an indigenous Quechua language but has found its way into Spanish literature. It is a short syllabic verse form (a pentastich) found at some sites around the internet. Seaside I dream of Puri Where you wait, surfboard…
V: Villanelle
A Villanelle is a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain. Remember “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas? That’s a…
U: Unrhymed
Unrhymed poetry, also known as blank verse or free verse. For more on this here’s a site to visit: https://allpoetry.com/column/7541893-Types-of-unrhymed-poetry–by-Linda-Marshall. VEGETARIAN Knife poised I stare At the avocado All set to pierce the scaly skin Scoop out the ripe flesh.. Did it die When you plucked it from the tree? Or, am I the only…
T: Triolet
A Triolet is a poetic form consisting of only 8 lines. Within a Triolet, the 1st, 4th, and 7th lines repeat, and the 2nd and 8th lines do as well. The rhyme scheme is simple: ABaAabAB, capital letters representing the repeated lines. PAINTING If my poems painted a picture what a masterpiece I could write….
Little Big Mouth
I want to write poetry Like the masters write them Supplicate thoughts for sounds And emotions for words I want to write like I feel Like when the bitch in me Finds a dog burrowing in the sand Only the sand is not the coarse yellow soil It is the sky. And the dog…
