Tag: magic

Imagine – a November Poem-A-Day Challenge – Diminishing Somonka

Poetry
Close your eyes and wish —
Magic can strike when you blink!
I’ll make my pen swish —
watch the letters as they link,
imagine what’s in my ink!
~
We’ll grow wings and fly–
(Watch the magic, see it flash!)
–swim an ocean sky–
(You’ve got stardust on each lash!)
–dance in moonbeams, till we’re ash!
 
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For today’s prompt, write an imagined life poem. The imagined life could be your own, or imagining a life for someone else–like a person you see at the bus stop, grocery store, or library. If for yourself, the imagined life might be another possible parallel outcome or a possible future (for better or worse).
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POETIC FORM:

Diminishing Somonka
 
A form I created by marrying the Somonka and Diminishing Verse poetic forms:
  • two Tankas (5-7-5-7-7), written as two love letters to each other.
  • remove the first letter of the end word in each successive 7 syllable line.
 
Variation: Poets can remove sounds if they wish like “flies” to “lies” to “eyes.”

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AUDIO FILE:
 
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Witchcraft – an ovillejo poem

Poetry

What magic makes my fever rise?
It’s your eyes!

What alchemy my heart beat trips?
Your hips!

How do you tempt me, charm me cruel?
I’m a fool!

You’ve lit a fire and fed it fuel!
You cause my soul to shake its wings —
my body does the wildest things!
It’s your eyes, your hips — I’m a fool!

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POETIC FORM:

OVILLEJO – a ten-line poem made up of 3 rhyming couplets, plus a quatrain. The first line of each couplet is an 8 syllable question, while the second corresponding lines are 2 to 3 syllable responses or echoes. The final quatrain is usually a redondilla, written in trochaic tetrameter. The final line of the quatrain combines lines 2, 4, and 6. The overall rhyme scheme is aa/bb/cc/cddc.

POETIC FORM DIAGRAM:

a (8 syllables)
a (2-3 syllables)

b (8 syllables)
b (2-3 syllables)

c (8 syllables)
c (2-3 syllables)

c (8 syllables) trochaic pentameter
d (8 syllables) trochaic pentameter
d (8 syllables) trochaic pentameter
c lines 2, 4, and 6 (8 syllables) trochaic pentameter

AUDIO FILE:

Advice for Travelers

Poetry

image

The road away from your door
will always sing a siren song.
There’s no use resisting.
So load your guitar and two
extra tires onto your bicycle.

You may miss your chance
to climb the distant tower,
but slip a stone into your pocket,
and you’ll find the right path–
one step and rock at a time.

Trees will no doubt invite you
to gaze into a magic mirror,
and renew some old promises.
Listen to the voice with the map —
it will nudge in the right direction.

Follow wings that swim circles,
and you may dance on the sand.
with an enchanting water-witch
–wet your bare toes in the scent
of rain on the summer wind.

When your bohemian feet grow tired,
gather up four corners of your heart.
Shake tangled doubt from your hair.
When you hear rhapsody on the road,
trust your voice to sing you home.

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AUDIO FILE:

I Am

Poetry

image

“I am a bouquet of wildflowers and thorns, a tangle of thistle and clover, a riotous fistful of color and contradiction. I am joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, walking the earth with bare feet, trailing the dust of a billion brilliant stars from my billowing skirts. I am wind and rain. I am the dark shadows of the forest path. I am questions and answers, confidence and anxiety, earth and sky. I am wise and naive. I am girl and mother, seductress and sage, priestess and supplicant, innocent and sinner, huntress and prey. I gather to myself the beautifully broken and breathtakingly whole, the wandering and the waiting, the tribe of souls lost and found in the desert oasis I call home. I am stained by their brilliance, soaked in their passion, I am humbled by their love. I sit in their midst, singing and silent, awed and oh, so grateful.”

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AUDIO FILE:

Three Wishes – a #NaPoMo #APRPAD Modified Rondeau

Poetry
threewishes
Three Wishes Dandelion by Helen Holmes Photography

 

Close your eyes. Make a wish. Count to three.
I believe you can fly. You’ve got wings.
There is real magic here, can’t you see–
how it shines, just like stars, how it swings?

Light a match. Hold your breath. Turn the key.
Listen close: There’s a voice and it sings.
Close your eyes. Make a wish. Count to three.
Take a leap. Trust your heart and its wings.

I can show you how, if you’ll trust me.
Nothing up my sleeves, no tricks, no strings.
I craft my spells from favorite things–
like the way your eyes say you love me.
Close them now. Make a wish. Count to three.

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#NaPoMo INFO:
Poetic Asides #April Poem-A-Day Challenge – PAD #3:
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Three (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: “Three Blind Hippos,” “Three Muskrats,” “Three’s Company,” “Three Movies Is Too Many for The Hobbit, Peter Jackson (just saying),” and so on.
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POETIC FORM INFO:
The poetic form focus for my PAD 2016 Challenge is the Rondeau — 13 lines in 3 stanzas; rhyme scheme: ABba/abAB/abbaA (uppercase letters are refrains) Usually 8 syllables per line. For info: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/personal-updates/help-me-rondeau-help-help-me-rondeau-another-french-poetic-form
NOTE:
For this poem, I’ve modifed the Rondeau to 9 syllables per line, all other conventions remain the same.
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AUDIO FILE:

Astronomy (a tanka)

Poetry

stargaze

Call me a dreamer.
You always seem to find me
with stars in my eyes.
I still believe in magic.
I find it in the night sky.

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POETIC FORM – TANKA:

If a haiku is usually thought of as a 3-line, 5-7-5 syllable poem, then the tanka would be a 5-line, 5-7-5-7-7 syllable poem. It’s better to think of a tanka as a 5-line poem with 3 short lines (lines 2, 4, 5) and 2 very short lines (lines 1 and 3). While imagery is also important in tanka, the form is a little more conversational than haiku, and allows for the use of poetic devices such as metaphor and personification.

 

Gears (a triolet poem)

Poetry

clocks

 

“You prefer not to see the gears of the clock, as to better tell time.”

― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

You prefer not to see the gears of the clock
— as to better tell the time.
You guard the magic, turn a key in the lock.
You prefer not to see the gears of the clock.
You’d rather imagine, than to take full stock,
to live life with more whimsy than rhyme.
You prefer not to see the gears of the clock
— as to better tell the time.

POETIC FORM: TRIOLET
The triolet (TREE-o-LAY), has 13th century French roots linked to the rondeau or “round” poem. An 8-line poem, in which the first line is used 3 times and the second line is used twice. There are 3 other lines 2 of which rhyme with the first line, the other rhymes with the second line.
DIAGRAM:
A (first line)
B (second line)
a (rhymes with first line)
A (repeat first line)
a (rhymes with first line)
b (rhymes with second line)
A (repeat first line)
B (repeat second line)
For more information on this form, check out Poetic Asides.

 

This Kiss

Poetry

image

there’s this kiss
lingers on these lips
tugs this smile
clouds this mind
like a jar of fireflies
on this summer night

POETIC FORM: SHARDORMA

Shardorma is a Spanish 6-line syllabic poem of 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable lines respectively. – See more at: http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/poets/shadorma-a-highly-addictive-poetic-form-from-spain#sthash.bn2uFi5o.dpuf