Day 22 PAD 2023

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

“What of a Breath?”

What of a breath? The first - the last
and all the ones in between that
we forget to count as we live
without guarantee of the next?

Hands shaking, chest too tight to breathe.
What of a breath? The first - the last.
Years of sweat and tears coming due.
Sweet taste of air when dreams arrive.

The one held before the first kiss
then lost when she smiles goodnight.
What of a breath? The first - the last.
Moments that change your views of life.

Holding hands as life fades away.
Too many questions to ask but
knowing that all you have is now.
What of a breath? The first - the last.

Poetic Form: Quatern

Day 20 PAD 2023

 

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

“A Fox’s Answer”

The sun draws back the blanket
of the night from a banquet
of flowers in a field still
with dew, until a bandit

robs the morning of silence.
A flash of red in violets’
purple, strikes a joyful chord.
A fox lord, in defiance

of the questions I have come
to ask the sun. An outcome
that is now in doubt. I’m lost
in the softness, yet still numb

from fate’s decisions for my
life. The fox stops, looks, its eyes
answers questions I do not
ask. It trots back toward the sky.

Poetic Form: Englyn Cyrch

Poetic Form 100: Glosa

 Why Write Poetry

Whenever the question comes up,

the poets all say the same thing:

the only poem we’re interested in is the next poem,

the one not written, the poem of tomorrow.

“The Next Poem” - Billy Collins

I have read that poetry is not needed.

That the world will revolve without words

that rhyme or follow meter.

This might be true

for a life void of crayons,

or animals made with dixie cups,

glue, and construction paper.

I reply that poetry is in a child’s song,

in tears of a lifetime breakup,

whenever the question comes up.

All art draws a line for our souls.

Bringing the unimaginable

from abstract to concrete,

to keep us from drowning

in a sea filled with waves

caused by life, by everything.

A brush, a guitar string, or these

words I search for to create a moment

for the reader to take wing.

The poets all say the same thing.

A poem is a present we send

to an unexpected world not knowing

if anyone will appreciate the 

painting inside the paper and bow.

Every word a small piece of truth

to inspire the lonesome,

the joyful, and the budding artist.

Poets write to stitch the fabric of living

for the pages of history. It’s known

the only poem we’re interested in is the next poem.

So, take these lines at this time

as a chance to see the frame

of a life lived, no matter how far away

from the emotions pulsing through

your veins. Grab a brush, a pair of scissors,

tap a tune that defines the depth of woe.

The world will turn, no matter what art is not created.

But the colors and emotions will be faded. 

I’ll be living, feeling the edges of a new rhyme though,

the one not written, the poem of tomorrow.

Poetic Form #100: Glosa

The Glosa or Glose is a Spanish poetic form that uses a quatrain from another 

poet’s work to structure the poet’s poem.

The form guidelines are:

1. A cabeza (or motto) – the quatrain borrowed from another poet, whose 

authorship must be acknowledged

2. Four 10-line stanzas, each ending with one of the lines in sequence from the cabeza.

3. The rhyme-scheme requirement is lines 6 and 9 rhyme with the final word of line 10 

of each stanza.

Poetic Form 78: Minute Poem

 Look

The eyes fall to another time,

and place. I climb

to see the path,

she walks with wrath.

The gate is locked with old beliefs.

Lover’s motifs

of broken rings,

the arrows sting.

I scream, frustration hits my chest.

A question pressed 

my words, disguised

past her sad eyes.

Poetic Form #78: Minute Poem

The minute poem is a recent poetic form.
The form is devised of 3 quatrains with 8 syllables in the first line of
each stanza. There are 4 syllables in the remaining lines of each stanza.
The rhyme scheme is aabb/ccdd/eeff and written in strict iambic meter.
Each stanza contains 20 syllables. With 3 stanzas that equals equals
60 syllables total. 60 seconds, or a minute. 

Poetic Form 18: Mondo

 

Tomorrow

Will there be peace on

plains of a land divided

by blind hate for each other?

Only if the wind

is allowed to speak the truth

as it caresses their hands.

Poetic Form #18: Mondo 

The mondo form is a question and answer poem from Japan. 
It typically has a 5 - 7 - 7 syllable scheme; it can have a 5 - 7 - 5 form, too. 
Traditional mondo poems used nature as a central component.