Kyoka Fun – The Raven – July 12, 2014

Whist chatting with a friend yesterday, about typos (crows became cross) I wrote a kyoka, of which this is the modified edited version:

The Raven

mossy crosses stood
upon a midnight weary …
roosting in the yard
the raven felt so dreary
cawing “never more”  he left.

One of the aspects of a kyoka, which is a humorous poem, is to make a parody or satire of a classic poem … of course this is only a reference, not quite a parody of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous Raven.

 

Distilling Poe!

Today I decided to try to distill Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” into haiku form.  The idea originally comes from the Carpe Diem Haiku Kai, but over at the 13th Floor Paradigm, I decided to use it as a Sunday  Writing Prompt…giving full credit of course to who, from my point of view created this great exercise!

So here we go with Poe:
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

The Raven

ONCE upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this, and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

Poe’s Raven in Haiku

dreary winter’s night
studying arcane lore books
a tapping is heard

mourning sweet Lenore
embers dying in the hearth
bleak December night