Monday, October 29, 2012

All Hallow's Eve




The hour before midnight moon
Silk veil flutters and dips low
As black crow
Shrills the air, wolves in lair
Awake, eyes aglow
I listen in fear, lips sealed 
Dead walks past corn fields  

The hour after the moon rises
Incense fills the room - prayers, 
Fragrant pears,           
Healing songs, and all wrongs  - 
Forgiven, the tears
fall like river, missing piece
Dead departs in peace !



Poetry form:  Following the Paul Laurence Dunbar's 7 line structure from his poem Melancholia:   

Silently without my window,  (a)   8 syllables
Tapping gently at the pane,  (b)   7 syllables 
Falls the rain.  (b)   3 syllables
Through the trees sighs the breeze (Internal rhyme c / c6 syllables
Like a soul in pain.  (b)   5 syllables
Here alone I sit and weep;  (d)   7 syllables
Thought hath banished sleep.  (d)   5 syllables




Happy Halloween !!!

Posted for OpenLinkNight - Imaginary Garden with Real Toads (Monday)
and D'verse Poets Pub (Tuesday)

Friday, October 26, 2012

Witching time


                               

circle of shadows - 
white candles on altar, burning  
for restless souls    

~0~0~ 

witching spell:
rose quartz in water glass, full moon -
awakening love   

~0~0~

haunted house
incense: sage, cinnamon, patchouli -  
calming night breeze  


Posted for Haiku Heights:   Witch - Thanks for the visit ~

picture credit:   here

Monday, October 22, 2012

Colors of autumn



pale skin under the sky 
bare limbs, empty of sheath   
color of autumn - cherry red
like your lips - parting mine 

~0~0


falling leaves on green meadow  
caressing softly  arms  and  hips 
color of autumn - golden orange
like your hands - warming fire 


~0~0

half-crescent moon in cool night 
glimmering dew on maple skin
color of autumn - plum purple 
like your eyes - raging storm


Posted for OpenLinkNight - Imaginary Garden with Real Toads (Monday)
and D'verse Poets Pub (Tuesday)

Poetry form:   Jue ju (Chinese)

Line length: 5 words per line
Lines per stanza: 4
Theme: Often suggestive of erotic love
Rhyme scheme: couplets or unrhymed


Picture credit:  here

Saturday, October 20, 2012

a Zen moment





i inhale
slow gathering of green and red blooms,
rising sun

~0~0~

i exhale
choking shadows and grey clouds, 
 empty bird cage     

~0~0~

i cluster
all the decaying golden leaves,
seeded poems 


Posted for:   Haiku Heights - Conscious
                   and Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - A Word with Laurie - Zen Meditation 

Picture credit:   here

Sunday, October 14, 2012

At midnight



                                                             Midnight Snack, 1984, by Curtis Wilson Cost


on rye bread
a day old, we prepare smoked ham,
slices of tomatoes, cheese and lettuce leaves


with 2 pop cans and bag of chips, 
we have the forest around us, leaning to hear    
each word, each story of lingering souls 


its midnight
we are hungry for the wind to keel and
make our knees tremble with fright  


here in Grandma's creaking house 


Posted for The Mag - 139 

Thanks for the visit ~

Friday, October 12, 2012

Leaves of autumn

Grace @ Everyday Amazing - beside our house


autumn leaves
cover the ground - soft carpet
of afternoon sky 

~0~0~

cool wind gathers 
pine cones and green needles,
warm bed for winter  

~0~0~

maple tree 
shiver in dress of dying colors - 
she dreams of tulips   



Happy Weekend and Thanks for your visit ~ 

Monday, October 8, 2012

Two sijo poems: Autumn

Grace @ Everyday Amazing - at our backyard

~0~0~0


heart of me - ashen purple - fell from the sky, spiral plunge. 
the ground swelled as autumn burst into fire and licked my wounds. 
i slow die -  when forgiveness comes short - on bed of leaves, a black stone. 

~0~0~0 

sharpest blade - but oh so cold -  
strongest wind, none can break me.
but my will, calm acceptance  
to let go, and fall gently. 
pale snowflake - into arms of lover - 
    moist brown as earth, warm cider.      


Posted for: OpenLinkNight of  Imaginary Garden with Real Toads (Monday) 
and D'verse Poets Pub (Tuesday)

Poetry form:  This is a more developed form of tristich (poem in three lines) called Sijo[pronounced see-szo], which is the Korean cousin of Tanka and Haiku.  

Lines 1 and 2 are written in four phrases of syllables counted as follows: 3 - 4 || 3 - 4 with a major pause at the end of the line (i.e. no enjambment) and a total of 14 syllables per line.


Line 3 is also written in four phrases of syllables counted: 3 - 6 || 4 - 3 to a total of 16 syllables.

Some leeway is allowed within this structure but the end result should be between 44 and 46 syllables.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Forest




tall forest treetops,
wide sky and lush maple hills-
where my eyes linger

~0~0

where wildflowers,
bathe in mountain rain -
my words breathe

~0~0

on bed of needles and
blanket of thousand moss,
the moon beguiles

~0~0

under towering pines,
beside river of hundred leaves -
my feet rest


Posted for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Transforming Fridays with Hannah Gosselin
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