Myriad moods of marriage

Arrange,
to meet to assess if there’s something
Connect,
over similar tastes and sweet nothings

Peep,
from beneath the lashes, wondering if there’s reason to reject
Glance,
eyes entangled, hearts somersault did effect

Adore,
at first sight;  is it even real?
Infatuated,
with every detail, however trivial!

Love,
isn’t it actually lust after a fashion?
Caress,
how can a mere touch ignite fiery passion!

Vows,
to remain faithful to each other forever
Cherish,
each other in this lifetime and ever

Stand
together as a team whatever the times
Agree,
to not disagree on parenting paradigms

Understand,
the nuances of what is left unsaid
Respect,
the boundaries that are never set

Raise,
not your voice, temper the temper
Silence,
not each other but anger’s ember

Celebrate,
the differences that make one who they are
Accept,
adjust, not complain nor needlessly spar

Aging,
should not dim the zeal nor the fervour
United,
hearts always beating in tandem with ardour.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Laura, says; today’s poetry prompt it’s all about couples, twos, in other words couplets!

The poetic form I have used, as suggested by Laura, is the côte.

About loving and living

From Freepik

It alights lightly, fluttering softly, leaving goosebumps, then you become aware of it when your heart is all aflutter, beating to a primordial song, awash in indescribable emotions, blood afire in your veins, your soul lit with the luminosity of pure joy; at once divine and carnal and there is no need to shout from the rooftops, for love like fragrance cannot be hidden. And yet, life is about living, not regretting so it is always better to proclaim.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Björn, has asked us to get aphoristic. You can read about it here.

Also for David’s W3, where Britta (POW) has asked us write a prose poem on love.

Passion

From Inc. Magazine

By the banyan tree in the courtyard
Freezing in the cold January night
Passion died under the onslaught of ego
At the altar of doubt, love felt forsook
Its last breath darkened the already dark night
Blossoming romance couldn’t survive till daylight.

By the time dawn removed the curtain of tenebrosity
Freezing earth had thawed, shedding rivulets of tears
Passion couldn’t remain moribund any longer
At the retreat of self-aggrandizement,
Its fire revived again, its flames stoking fervour
Blossoming again into all consuming ardour.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Laura, has asked us to choose ONE of the following lines and write a stanza(s) taking each word as the start of each successive line i.e. the first word begins the first line, the second begins the second and so on.

Rules: You must keep the same sequence though you may reverse it
Your poem should preferably  be at least 2 stanzas long
Rhyme is optional but try to stick to the meter of your chosen line.

• Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part
• Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows
• By freezing passion at its blossoming
• I guard her beauty clean from rust
• Quail from your downward darting kiss

I have selected Neil Carpathios’ line.

Mercurial rain

Tippity toe, tippity toe
bringing forth joy as well as woe
moody, coy and capricious
seldom are you judicious
drowning castle or bleak hut
to your awry tune you strut
tippity toe, tippity toe
bringing forth joy as well as woe!

Tippity toe, tippity toe
bringing forth joy as well as woe
why do you show your wrath thus
can’t you pour without a fuss
sunburned grass and withered trees
sultry weather and no breeze
tippity toe, tippity toe
bringing forth joy as well as woe!

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Grace, says: Post a poem following the Octelle poetry form.

I have written two Octelle.

Looping the dreams

Drawing by Francesca Miguieles

Bemused I look at my bloodied, skinned knees

Knees lacerated and raw from crawling all over

Over the jagged and cruel edges of reality

Reality which had been summarily discarded

Discarded foolishly in favour of  fanciful fantasy

Fantasy which turned into smithereens everything

Everything  now seems lost forever, but…

But now I am retrieving broken pieces of those dreams

Dreams thus fragmented, you may say, would do no good

Good times alas seem far-fetched and unreal

Unreal cadence of yesterday mars my today

Today the salt from my eyes may sting these dreams

Dreams that continue to lie shattered and prone

Prone and battered completely out of shape

Shape of my future splintered badly so

So I gently lay them away from the escarpment

Escarpment which beckons with suicidal notions

Notions that may make them fall off the precipice again

Again to be shattered and scattered all over

Over which I may cry no more but reconcile myself

Myself to the inevitability of stark truths

Truths that stare me in the face, yet

Yet, if even one dream manages to resurrect itself

Itself, of its own volition, it will be a reason to revel

Revel because dreams only work if we want them to.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Grace, has asked us to write a loop poem today. Read more about it here.

Tenacity

From Pinterest

Curveballs, roadblocks also setbacks galore
doesn’t life like to keep me on my stubbed toes!
I stumble, I fumble, am often heartsore
but stubbornly refuse to wallow in woes
hands do reach out to support and reassure
everytime that I fall flat on my bruised nose.
a word, a smile, a hug often does the trick
I do take in my stride life’s nasty butt kicks
however hard hardships may connive and try
no amount of scudding drifts can make me cry
‘cos I may not have wings, but am meant to fly!

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Grace, says: For today’s Meeting the Bar/Poetry Form, we will craft a poem using 11 line stanza.

Eleventh Power is an invented stanzaic form introduced by Christina Jussaume who requests the subject be uplifting. The elements of the Eleventh Power are:

• stanzaic, written in any number of 11 line stanzas.
• syllabic, 11 syllables each, per line.
• rhymed, rhyme scheme:   abababccddd or ababababccc.

The best things in life are free

And with fingers entwined
we lay on the mud floor
counting stars and gifting each other
constellations. During the day
we dodged the streaming sunrays
as we dreamt with eyes wide open
our upturned palms
caught the crooning raindrops
rainbow bubbles our prized possession
the whispering trees our steadfast guardians
the laughing blooms were our playmates
we had little then but life overflowed with laughter
now there is no dearth yet no reason to laugh too.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s guest host, Anna, says : Gnomic poetry is the long lived and loved practice of moralizing in verse. Choose a maxim, aphorism or proverb, the focal point of your poem must have a moral or assert a philosophical position on life. 

Being with self

Silence drowned by brash noise and sound
when mind wallows in shallows of din
’tis best then to retreat within

in nature’s lap inner peace I found
gentle murmur of rustling leaves
birdsong a soothing refrain weaves

quietude; nothingness around
breathe deep, relax, calm your senses
let go of all mental fences

gratitude and deep bliss abound
no intrigue, no suspense; just calm
accepting flaws without a qualm

being alone, a feeling profound
solitude is the place to be
when I am in touch with just me.

Silence drowned by brash noise and sound
in nature’s lap inner peace I found
quietude; nothingness around
gratitude and deep bliss abound
being alone, a feeling profound!

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Björn has asked us to write a Constanza.

Maia

Lily of the valley

Blooms dance
waving their arms
embracing the sunshine
no care in the world to stop them
it seems

it seems
all they do is
unfurl their prettiness
their struggle to survive remains
unseen

unseen
toiling hard roots
working behind the scenes
silently strengthening network
of dreams

of dreams,
realities
tangled in a mess
still life stops not, moves constantly,
ceaseless

ceaseless
movement may not
be true living. Sometimes
living is to make others smile;
blooms dance.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Laura, says : given today’s double whammy of the 5th of the fifth month, our challenge today will be:

Either the cinq-cinquain,

a series of 5 [entire] Crapsey Cinquains, 25 lines total

syllabic count: 2-4-6-8-2 in each stanza

written with or without breaks between stanzas

 OR the cinquain chain/crown cinquain.

a series of 5 [entire] Crapsey Cinquains, 25 lines total

syllabic count: 2-4-6-8-2 in each stanza

written with a break between each stanza

last line of the previous cinquain repeated as first line of the next cinquain

Note: The final line of the last cinquain does not have to equal the first line of the first cinquain, but it is an option.

Two poems for two prompts (dVerse/NaPoWriMo)

Riddle me not! (dVerse)

Two sisters and a baby, shabbily
separated from their dear family
descend willy-nilly from cooler climes
going through harrowing times
becoming warm comforters or cool companions
equally at home in a castle or under the banyans
all weather friends, always game
versatility is their second name.

Written for dVerse MTB. Today’s host, Björn, says: write a poem that is a riddle, using personification for abstract or innate objects.

Words (NaPoWriMo)

Enough of your evasive, edgy, errant words

you think I can’t fathom how you use words

to camouflage and cover chasm caused by words

your father’s harsh, hostile and hurting words

they are no salve; your mom’s half-hearted words

you may try to make light with light-hearted words

but I can see the laceration caused by words

caustic, nasty, abusing and accusing words

just sit quietly and utter no words

let wordless-ness take away the pain caused by words

when proverbial silence speaks louder than words

then no words are required to heal wounds given by words.

In honor of today’s being the 22nd day of Na/GloPoWriMo 2022, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that uses repetition. You can repeat a sound, a word, a phrase, or an image, or any combination of things.