I know
you are sorry,
but I will not bestow
mercy that bears no guarantee
for me
Category Archives: formal poetry
Empty Vessels
I still can see small golden lights ablaze
within a glossy, yellow coffee tin
near bonny faces from those olden days.
They left sweet scars beneath my withered skin.
Their voices ring inside the attic’s din.
But tender hearts were silenced long ago;
why they departed, I shall never know.
****
edited after initial posting
Interview (a Rubliw)
The Rubliw was invented by American poet Richard Wilbur. It is a 9 line form that is framed as a message to an individual person or to a larger group of people. The Rubliw is monorhymed and bears the following iambic structure.
L1 – monometer
L2 – dimeter
L3 – trimeter
L4 – tetrameter
L5 – pentameter
L6 – tetrameter
L7 – trimeter
L8 – dimeter
L9 – monometer
TSN XI
Belief quite stout over years,
Spinning through dark fields of time.
Shelter from recondite spheres,
Opaque glass o’er minefields’ rime;
Before you take faith to bed,
Cut off its foul, wretched head.
Cinquain/LXXII
wizards
cloaked in ermine
course calmly through blizzards,
casting enchanted spells within
the din
Far From the Blazing Stars
Beneath a buzzing vault of viper skins,
I slither through the belly of a lake,
where my lean lower limbs morph into fins.
By Suijin’s deep grace, I swiftly make
my way past ruthless currents and begin
to transform into an enchanted snake.
It seems my life on land is over now.
I never shall return – to that I vow.
———————-
Suijin is the Shinto god of water in Japan. This was written in Ottava rima form.
Racing the Darkness
The hour of eight is almost nigh
and as I gaze up at the sky
the sun is sinking in the west,
to make space for our nightly guest.
But, when I set out for this day,
I brought no torch to light my way,
and so I journey with great haste,
for surely there’s no time to waste,
as feet march over mountainside
to reach green meadow, flat and wide.
:::country party:::
Clear off the cobwebs!
Clear off the mold!
Do it right quick,
just as you’re told!
The guests have arrived!
The guests are all here!
Now, let’s greet them warmly,
with wine and good cheer!
Image Credit: Philip Gerrard
http://www.originalpaintings.com/philip_gerrard.htm
The Chase
The other night I took a stroll
and came across a little hole
that looked as if it might be deep
enough to hold the hearty heap
of sharp unease which weighed me down
and caused my freckled face to frown.
I tried to shove it down that chink
and for a flash my woe did shrink,
but in the end, that mouth could not
receive the cumbrous, dreadful rot
which sent my lean and stooping shape
to seek sweet twilight’s soothing drape
and so my heart resigned to keep
these pricking fears which shake my sleep.
The Vulture
And to the north I saw a star
which did not seem so very far
from where those lonely columns rose;
I felt its heat upon my nose,
and heard a willful, warbling call
emerge from heaven’s endless wall.
Through some strange force I can’t explain
that flaming bird threw down a chain
and pulled me up to raven sky,
now here I sit, away up high,
ensconced in Lyra’s brightest light
on this obscure and biting night.
sundry folly 