Journey – Experimental Quadrille – July 19, 2016

Yes, the journey
began like all journeys
one step at a time

Some songs were sung
and some anthems played
yes, they shared a few tears

one became famous
one became homeless
the other died

And I – watched the music box
go ’round and ’round

© Gsk ’16

I came across this consignment from dVerse whilst visiting a fellow poet’s site (Write a poem in 44 words with the word “journey”) – it seemed interesting so I thought I’d give it a try … the poet is Candy from RHYMESWITHBUG and her poem is entitled: Summer Journeys.

Unfortunately I also read on dVerse that our dear fellow poet Vivi from VivinFrance passed away on July 5th … this will be such a loss for all of us.  My sympathies go to her family for their profound loss.

I remember when I first met Vivi – she advised me to buy Stephen Fry’s  “The Ode Less Travelled” (which I did) so that I might find a more fluent way to write poetry … rhythm instead of syllable counting (which I still like to do very much).  I’ll miss visiting Vivi’s posts an enjoying her dry humour.

And still I watch the music box go ’round and ’round … and another tear falls.

Daily Haiku and Waka – July 19, 2016

Torbole – Lido

To Goethe

windy morning
the agitated bay calls
whispering wisdom
he walked and heard
“Boldness has genius”

© Gsk ’16

History of Torbole sul Garda

NaPoWriMo – Choka – April 13, 2016

a silent minstrel
sat at dawn his fingers limp
(the blue sky streaked red)
reminding him of lost friends
a song dangled there
(just out of reach but so near)
he touched the taut strings
and struck a sweet cord
then, heard a sistrum jangle
the music began
flowing like a spring river

he sang of karma
he sang of resurrection
of life – birth and death
and of red dawns and sunsets
o’er the mountains and the sea.

© G.s.k. ‘16

“The choka (長歌 long poem) was the epic, story telling form of Japanese poetry from the 1st to the 13th century, known as the  Waka period. Most often the Japanese poet would write epics in classical Chinese. Still, the occasional poet with a story to tell would tackle the choka, the earliest of which can be traced back to the 1st century. It describes a battle and is 149 lines long.

Originally choka were sung, but not in the Western sense of being sung. The oral tradition of the choka was to recite the words in a high pitch.

The choka is:

• a narrative.
• syllabic. Composed of any number of couplets made up of alternating 5-7 onji (sound syllables) per line. In English we can only treat the onji as a syllable.
• unrhymed.
• concluded by a hanka, an envoy in the form of the waka, 31 onji or sound syllables in 5 lines with 5-7-5-7-7. “han” meaning repetition, the hanka is to summarize the choka. The word tanka is often substituted for hanka or waka (they are all rooted in the same 31 syllable, 5 line form, their root seems to make them interchangeable with only subtle differences to separate them.)
• Another way to write a choka  is to write several katauta (5-7-7 syllable stanzas).
• The poem can be as long as you like and in classical times there have been choka with hundreds of lines.

§§§§§§§§§§§§§

Written for NaPoWriMo inspired by the mandala and words found on 1sojounal NaPoWriMo: Day 13:

minstrel, dawn, strings, blue, flow, fingers, jangle, dangle

A to Z challenge – Alliteration Poem (The Letter I) – April 11, 2016

 

Photo by Morgan Dragonwillow

 

Isabella and Isidoro
Imperial twins
From the Indigo Inner sea,
Indulged and strong-willed,
Wished to invoke an Indian Idol
In search of Inspiration.
Unfortunately,
The idolatrous priests
Irritated the innocent youth,
Since they indulgently ironized
(Irritating and insistently)
Upon the incongruous ideology
Of imperial illumination,
Scientific imperatives
And inspiring idolatry.
Ergo,
In the dead of night,
The twins invoked the idol
Without priestly interference,
(Since they were intoxicated
Inside  their inner sanctum,
A state most ingeniously induced
by an ithania felfea infusion
mixed inside the evening coffee).
The invitation to the idol issued,
The Imperial infants waited
Indolently
Playing intricate cat’s cradles.
Inconveniently,
No inspiration was invoked,
But golden ichor flowed
Endowing Isabella and Isidoro
With immortality
“Impossible and inconceivable!”
They intoned.

© G.s.k. ‘16

I’m Falling Behind! #atozchallenge

I is for Inspiration with Morgan Dragonwillow

Six for Wednesday 1 – Wordle – April 7, 2016

Ah it’s so clear now,
I thought this morning
As I pushed through my dream
Back into this world.

I awoke with wonder deep
My soul rejoicing
I was still able to look upon
The radiance of the sun.

Never had I been happier to realize
That my perception of reality was wrong.

© G.s.k. ’16

Six for Wednesday – 1 – and  1sojournal

Sunday Whirl – The Root of Heaven – April 7, 2016

Slipping through silk threads of grace
Witness this rare and  endless root.
It came from inside the deepest earth
With a claim – that for but one brief moment
Erotic pleasure and illumination will blossom.
Feed not then upon crass empty illusions,
Here is the heaven of which men speak.

April 6, 2016

 

Wordle 245

A to Z Challenge – The Letter F – April 7, 2016

PHOTO: REUTERS

Fending freely
In fields and forests
Foraging for food
From trees and vines:
Fungi, flowers and fruits
Maybe field mice
Or frogs and fish.
Feasting at times
At others,
Frankly frugal repasts!
Formidably
Our forefathers
Fended for millennium thus!
Following food with the seasons
Frightened sometimes freezing.
Finally,
First feeble weapons were fashioned
Then fire was fabricated
Finally farms were founded
Furnishing families with food
In abundance!
But fatally
Fortifications, fratricide and fallacious fantasies
Of supposed superiority
Followed forthwith;
Filthying men’s minds,
Undermining faithful friendships,
Fomenting frustration and felons.
Fine, fine fare thee well!

© G.s.k. ‘16

Blogging A to Z – F

A to Z Challenge – The Letter D – April 5, 2016

Moulin Rouge Toulouse-Lautrec Paintings – 1890

Delightful Daphne,
Dowager dame
from Dorroughby downs
Danced (dusting daisies) at dawn
In damask digs,
Dumbfounding Daft old Dan!
(Doubting his eyes
Daft Dan did declare:
“Damn, I’m dreaming drivel!”)
Alas duly assured,
The delighted demented debaucher
Dropped down on his knees
Declaring his demise
If she denied his devotion.
Diffident in her dishevelment
Daphne demurred daintily,
Declaring:
“Devotion does demand a
Desirous dedication,
Disregard for dithering declarations
and I do mean durable discretion.
Do declare; “I Do! My dotty devotee”
Then dignify your declaration
With delightful deportment:
Dancing through the daisies
Disrobed at dawn with me!”

© G.s.k. ’16

D is for Dragons

Morning Haiku (5-7-5) – March 8, 2016

The Farmer’s Kitchen

a lone black feather
upon the cold cement walk
awaiting a child

skipping off to school
her feather in her book-bag
for her cat’s delight

springtime serenade
the blackbird warbles sweetly
on the picket fence

those stains and tatters
reminders of her triumphs
old blackbird apron

Haiku Horizons – haiku and waka – January 8, 2016

look as I might
I still can’t find it …
– a poet’s soul

that important find
exaltation for a day
then – a new hunt starts

destiny found
inside fortune cookies
– writing pidgin verse

lost and found offices
full of abandoned objects
their owners misplaced
they’re often never sought
people lack faith in mankind

stopped smoking
new harmony found
without nicotine

© G.s.k. ‘16

Haiku Horizons – find