Poetic Form 41: Contrapuntal

All the World

It feels like the weight of the world

is strapped to me like a backpack

that someone has tighten the straps

so tight they dig into my armpits

The moon is a spotlight

And I am on stage

At the end of my driveway

I can’t shake the weight of the world

around to a comfortable spot

or remove my arms from the pack

without dislocating my shoulders

My audience is every star in the galaxy

The crickets my orchestra

So I trudge forward with the weight of the world

But I never received the script

For this show and the moon is out

Casting light on my spot

sighing like Robert Frost

at the fork in the road as others

pass me by, laughing in groups

And I don’t know which way is stage right

Poetic Form #41: Contrapuntal

A contrapuntal poem intertwines two (or more) separate poems into a single
new poem. The traditional format is using one line of poem A, then a 
corresponding line in poem B from start to finish, but you can combine them
in different ways. I took the creative liberty of messing with the form.

Poem A: “Weight of the world” - available in my book From My Years.

Poem B: “The Moon is a Spotlight” - Unpublished.

Poetic Form 3: Skeltonic Verse

To the Young Voices

Set the mic a blaze

with words that wave

and crash against 

the shores of pretense

Nothing more or less

than a voice intense

with the rhythm of pain

mixed with a story main

that calls for a tomorrow

filled with love instead of sorrow

Walk tall, we will follow

Words have power

to raise towers

that allow everyone a view

of a world we strive to

Where friendship is me and you

not dictated by unwritten rule

So set that pen to paper

Build a skyscraper

Truth won’t wait until later

We need your talent on stage

and street, love too can rage

Poetic Form #3: Skeltonic Verse

This form is named after the English poet, John Skelton (c. 1463 - 21 June 1529). The rules are simple. Lines are short with a couple of stresses. The rhymes are irregular. Alliteration and parallelism are used often in this form.

Thrid Collection of Very Short Stories

Here is the third collection of very short stories... a couple of these need to be expanded.

"What if we are on the last line of God's #haiku?" she asked. Her mother put down her pen. She had been writing her weekly letter to her own parents. The quarantine was now into the third month. She looked at her daughter, green eyes hoping. "It was a beautiful poem." #vss365

 

He #organized the love letters into shoeboxes. Each card placed in the envelope with the crease at the top. Placed in the box by date. Funny, there were no letters since 2016. He placed the shoeboxes into a packing box with the divorce papers. He had enough for postage. #vss365

 

The #Armada Township in Nebraska was busy that day. The Miller Community Center was packed. The parking lot filled with mostly trucks, but a few tractors. The President was on the radio. Only the soft cooing of a child was heard when the world went back to war. #vss365

 

"Dad, can you dance?" "I can do the #Robot." "What is that?" "Play some music... and watch this!" After a minute he sees that the room is empty, but can hear the laughter from the other room. He continues anyway, awash in memory. #vss365

 

"May I have a #word with you?" The little boy hung his head walking to the corner of the playground with his teacher. What had he done this time? He felt like everyone wanted a word with him. He resisted the urge to run. "That was an awesome throw!" He smiled for once. #vss365

 

The lights. The stage. The microphone. The paper filled with words not #spoken. Her hands trembling. Her pain and beauty screaming to be heard. The audience waiting to be knocked over with her voice. She coughs and opens her soul for the world to hear. #vss365

 

He couldn’t get a #spark from the lighter. Panic set in. He felt around him for some stones, something. It was day 88 of the darkness. He tried to slow his mind. There was a rumble building behind him. He couldn’t tell if it was them or just the world falling apart. #vss365