Day 23 PAD 2023

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2023 challenge and will be revised.

“Fear …”

Fear frames
Faith
For family
For friends

Fear freezes fortune
Falling feathers
Found
Frozen

Fear forges
Fangs
For feeding
For fading

Fear finds fame
Favorite
Fist
Falling

Forgiveness forgotten
Face facts
Fear…

Poetic Form: Tautogram

PAD 2022 Day 3: Smell

 This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 

PAD Prompt: Smell

Poetic Form: Cinquain

“Blueberry Muffins”

Sunday

morning, warm sweet

blueberries mix with salt

sizzling bacon, eggs scrambled, brings

family.

Poetic Form 96: Monotetra

 Here Joy Has Been

Stories told around the dinner

table. The youngest is bigger

now, adding to tales of winter.

Time’s a river. Time’s a river.

Plates clean, laughing until we cry.

Brothers and sisters testify

of past moments that fortify

Love’s real why. Love’s real why.

I hold a cup of coffee in

my hands, while I try to think when

I felt more blessed. Room filled with kin.

Here joy has been. Here joy has been.

Poetic Form #96: Monotetra

The monotetra form was developed by Michael Walker.  The poem is composed

 of quatrains (four-line stanzas) with 8 syllables per line. Each quatrain has 

mono-rhymed lines. The last line of each stanza repeats the same four syllables.

 The poem can be as short as one quatrain or as long as the poet wishes.

Poetic Form 94: Qasida

 Here be Dragons

The walking path leans into the woods, sunlight

becomes a mosaic pattern of delight.

My daughters scamper onto the darken ground

to find sticks, there are new dragons here to fight.

I follow their adventure on the path, I

yell, “A golden fire breather to the right!”

Smiling, I can almost feel the the wings flapping

as the dragon rises in my girls’ eyes bright.

With a blink of memory I feel the dark

corners of the woods take me to a past night.

As a young boy I would run the streets alone,

trying to dodge my own dragons, fear in flight.

Those dragons, not seen with imagination,

their wings and claws were never shown in daylight.

Always the new kid with a new address to

remember, a family just out of sight.

I learned to slay them with my words and paper,

a battle I won with a pen and rewrite.

I open my eyes, leave the path to join in 

a new story, three princesses and a knight.

We laugh as I spin the tale of new battles,

here be dragons that fatherly love makes right.

The Poetic Form #94: Qasida

The qasida is a form that dates back to pre-Islamic Arabia. The poem is a story 

written in a string of shers (complete couplets) that can be as long as 100 couplets. 

The meter is up to the poet but should be consistent. There is some debate 

about the rhyme scheme. One form has a mono-rhymed pattern: aa aa aa.  

Another variation is aa bb cc dd. The most common rhyme pattern is aa xa xa xa xa xa. 

The poem should also entail the following parts:    

• opening setting describes or recalls past times    
• tale of lost love or things left behind     
• the struggles of the journey      
• praise or some moral maxim    

Poetic Form 73: Strambotto

 Holiday Moment

The laughter fills the corners of the dinning

room. Generations share stories of their past

that shines on a life they want to be living.

Brothers and sisters pass plates with smiles when asked.

Dessert and coffee are served before cleaning.

New romances have joined, family now recast.

I am silent for a second, convening

a holiday moment of love unabashed.

Poetic Form #73: Strambotto

The Italian form, Strambotto, is an 8-line poem or stanza. There are a few different 

styles of this form (I am using the Siciliano style). Each line has 11 syllables with 

a rhyme scheme: abababab.

Poetic Form 54: Acrostic

Semiophor

Caught between the past and the future,

hidden possibilities revealed when

identity is plucked from the trees that 

linger in pastures found by knowing stories.

Directions discovered in DNA but

rerouted when the will finds its reflection,

enlightening a soul that collects life, old and

new, between the beginning and the end.

Poetic Form #54: Acrostic

The Acrostic form spells out words on the left-hand side of the page using the

first letter of each line.

Poetic Form 38: Shadorma

William

Lost uncle

found through internet

connections.

Living, with

his wife, across the ocean. 

Family redefined.

Both of us

teachers of stories.

Ideas shared

through written

words. Passion passed to students,

educate the soul.

Time gone is

history now shared 

through a screen.

His brother’s

son learning a family’s

tradition, now his.

Poetic Form #38: Shadorma 

Shadorma is a Spanish form that has 6 lines that follow a 3/5/3/3/7/5 
syllable pattern. That’s it.

Poetic Form 28: Kimo

July afternoon, sun warm on the neck

Everyone in the water

Reflecting happiness

Poetic Form #28: Kimo

The kimo form (Israeli version of haiku) has 3 lines, no rhymes,

and follows a syllable pattern: 10 syllables in the first line, 7 in the 

second, and 6 in the third. The kimo focuses on a single frozen image. 

It is uncommon to have any movement happening in the poem.

Poetic Form 20: Prose

Bring me down

6:24 p.m. June 24, 2020

I’m driving on interstate 80, headed to a Henderson to pick up my son. We are down 
to one car after he hit a deer a week ago.

I’m counting memories like the mile markers on the shoulder, when the song “Landslide” 
(Smashing Pumpkins’ version) comes on the radio. And I am panicking to keep the tears 
at bay, but when the chorus starts, “Well, I've been afraid of changing / 'Cause I've built 
my life around you...” I feel all the yesterdays run down my cheek. Inside I am standing
there, arms filled with snap shots of zoo trips, basketball tournaments, visits to a dinosaur 
museum now closed. I can’t hold them all. They fall from my hands, fluttering like dead 
leaves in an autumn storm. I scramble to catch them. Left arm hugging memories tight, 
while my right sweeps through the air grasping at the moment my wife and I had a flat 
tire early in the morning. My heart heaves, more moments shift in my arms, then ambushes
me. The photos of my life cascade in front of me. Joy and frustration. Happiness and 
exhaustion. Victory and sorrow. All swirl in a colorful avalanche that buries my soul. I almost 
pull over in fear of being blinded by the rumble of living. 

“Well, the landslide will bring you down / Oh, the landslide will bring it down”

6:27 p.m. June 24, 2020

I’m driving on interstate 80...

Poetic Form #20: Prose

A prose poem is written as prose, without traditional line breaks. The poem still makes use of 

poetic devices such as repetition, rhyme, metaphor, and other literary elements.

Poetic Form 11: Abstract

Home

du-ring Du-ring DU-ring DU-RING

The phone is full of frivolous fluff

Sunlight shines in sight

Nu Nu Nothing to say

Just another sleepless night

Pop 

Pop-tart

Pop

Pop toast

Pop

Pop strudel

Cartoons clamour

The best day ever

Finding clues

Makes us feel clever

Oven beeped

Beeped

Beeped until canceled

Cycle through cycles

Clunk

Swoosh

Spraying until sparkling

Hummmm

Till they turn up the TV

A last groan

Aughhh

With a last dad joke

hee, hee, hee

Hun, what do you call...

Poetic Form #11: Abstract

There are a few different definitions for abstract poetry. The main idea is about how sounds, rhythms, and textures of the words evoke emotions rather than about the meaning of words.

Poetic Form 8: Limerick

There once was a middle aged dad 

Who told jokes that were so bad 

His children only moaned

His wife’s eyes like stone

But without his humor their life was sad

Poetic Form #8: Limerick

A limerick has a AABBA rhyme scheme. The syllable count guidelines are 8-10 for 
the A lines and 6 for the B lines. Original limericks repeated the first line as the last line.

Poetry Challenge Day 24: Nature

Friday Rain

The sunrise is covered by grey April clouds

Rain colder than snow

Penetrates my skin

Grass and winter’s decay mix with my coffee

Not sure if my spirit will rise today

The storm is covering my window panes

While the wind is stirring through the garage doors

Moving dust along the foundation

How do you find the sun

When yesterday looks just like tomorrow

All I want to do is run free

Dodging the rain as it follows the wind

In a frazzled way down

Down with my eyelids 

Protecting my view of today

My hair beginning to flatten to my skull

Dripping down my collar

Another gust pushes me to my left

For a second I believe I can tumble like a leaf

To be swept away, maybe to the gulf

But I step hard with my left foot

Steady my cup in both hands

My daughters call to me, with giggles

They want to know what I was doing outside

Their eyes smile in wonder, anticipating an answer

I want to tell them the truth

That I was searching to be baptized by the storm

That I was trying to recite a sacred prayer

Instead I tell them that fathers gain special powers

In a Friday rain

What powers they ask, never doubting my words

I stare at them for a few seconds

Then quietly I tell them the truth

To love you more each day

Slowly, they start to smile

My skin warming in their hugs

Poetry Challenge Day 16: The Last (blank)

The Last

I am not ready

    No, not ready

For the last

    Of anything

They say that heaven is the most wonderful place

But I don’t know how

    It can compare

To late night movies and popcorn

To listening to my children laugh 

Or a deep kiss from my wife 

    Before we enter our home

Will I have headphones in heaven

    To turn up that song

        So I can dance as I wash dishes

Will I have a desk

    pens and notebooks

    When the muse strikes me on fire

Can I feel the cold pierce my skin

Can I cry when my heart cracks 

    Little pieces in my hands

        Knowing time is not enough to put them back

I know that the day will come

That there will be a last time I brush my teeth

That there will be a last time I read a book

    A last time I breathe

but,

I am not ready

    No, not ready

For the last

    Of anything

            Here on earth