Tag Archives: poetry about poetry

“The Silence of the Iambs” for MVB, Oct 18, 2024

The title, by the way, is talking about iambs, not lambs.  Hard to tell when it is capitalized.

The Silence of the Iambs

Anapests sing lullabies while dactyls gallop on.
Trochees beat a drum beat that’s heard hither and yon,
but raindrops speak in iambs, dripping from the eaves
as the torrent lessens and cups itself in leaves.
All the small feet hushed now, we can fall asleep.
We can find our dreams inside a silence that’s so deep.

 

The loud rhythms of the unseasonal rain that awakened me so early this morning have ceased, leaving only the faint drip of water off the eaves. This poem may be one that only another poet could appreciate, but for those of you who aren’t poets and who didn’t pay attention in your lit class, it is about metrical feet—the syllable rhythms within a poem and even within our everyday speech and nature itself.  A trochee (the rhythm of a native American drumbeat replicated in the poem “Hiawatha”) is an accented or long syllable followed by a short one. An iamb is the rhythm in the English we speak every day––a short syllable followed by a long one. An anapest is the rhythm of a lullaby. (short short long) whereas a dactyl (the rhythm of a horse’s gallop) is its opposite (long short short).

MVB’s prompt for the day is Silence

 

Poetic Inspiration: NaPoWriMo 2020 Day 14

Poetic Inspiration

I do not seek to emulate great poets of the past,
for if they were any good, their poems are bound to last.
Why do they need an imitator? Better we’re original.
Modern times do not demand a message aboriginal.
Chaucer’s fine for Chaucer and he was an inspiration,
but Middle English has long passed its date of expiration.
Shakespeare is ubiquitous. No need for one Will more.
Leave Love’s Labor’s Lost to him–and Lady Macbeth’s Gore.
Let Frost mend all the fences. Leave Ozymandius to Shelley.
Nineteenth century topics are best left to film or telly.
What’s left to modern poets? Where can they get their start?
Leave imitation on the shelf and merely write your heart.

We were to write a poem dealing with poets who have influenced us..positively or negatively. For NaPoWriMo 2020 Day 14

Poetry Pays!!!

Poetry Pays!

Quatrains for carrots, couplets for peas,
I’m writing out haiku whenever I please
for rib eyes and cheesecake and chili and cheese,
to visit the doctor whenever I sneeze,
to buy a new sweater to ward off the breeze,
to buy a new car and a ring for its keys,
to barter for kneecaps when I’m out at the knees,
and cartons of cigarettes until I wheeze.
I’m lucky to have a profession well-paying.
Poetry’s lucrative. Ignore what they’re saying.
If you are planning on going to college
for profit as well as for wisdom and knowledge,
if you want to live well in this difficult time,
be sure that you learn how to scan and to rhyme!!!

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/barter-system/