Poetic Form 76: Elegy

 

Thoughts of a Son (an Elegy to Time)

I remember holding you

while mom rested. The Vikings

playing on the hospital 

TV. Remote on the bed 

rail. I wouldn’t give you up to

anyone, not even mom.

The world was brand new again.

I felt like everything was

possible. You learned to crawl,

then walk, and then run. We read

books in the middle of church.

Took walks so we could touch the

bark on the trees. Watch squirrels

play tag on the limbs. I tried

to show you how to reach the

horizon before the sun

burned away all the colors.

But now, now there is silence

at the dinner table that

echoes in my heart, leaving

me wishing I knew how to

stop the sun from falling so

far below the stars we use

to watch on late summer nights.

A baby boy grew into 

a child that became a teen

that stood inches above me.

Today you are a young man,

but time holds you as my son.

Poetic Form #76: Elegy
The formal definition of an elegy is a song of sorrow or mourning. 

Today, though, poets have written elegies for the ends of things, a life,

a relationship, even a football season. There are no rules on form. 

With an elegy the message matters.

Poetic Form 45: Hir a Thoddaid

Hometown

The streets are the same, but names and some

buildings have changed. I am now an alum

of the school. Football in the snow, numb

hands, burning lungs, I ran, becoming

a man I believed would change all the rules.

Yet, this small town, my history from.

Poetic Form #45 Hir a Thoddaid

The hir a thoddaid structure is as follows: (Xs are syllables).

1-xxxxxxxxa

2-xxxxxxxxa

3-xxxxxxxxa

4-xxxxxxxxa

5-xxxxxxxbxx

6-xxbxxxxxa

Line 5 has 10 syllables. The other 5 lines have 9 syllables. The "b" rhyme is open 
to be near the end of line 5, then somewhere in the first half of line 6. There is a 
little freedom with that rhyme.