Marc Latham returns today to lower the tone and standards after some wonderful recent poetry on this site.
It’s a typically introspective and self-reflective ditty from Marc, which will hopefully tie your mind up in knots, and give you something to ponder over the weekend…but don’t be getting paranoid…like Marc…but is Marc paranoid…or just a realist…
Atypically, it has a very long headline, with Marc obviously not able to turn the poetry tap off this morning!
And without further ado, here it is: enjoy.
I Am What You See
But You Are Not Me
Six Billion + of You
Myself – Only a Few
thought I’d say
pack your bags
that’s how three
simple words leave
sent off travelling
on merry go
round and round
my words, your words
same letters return
but different so
why is meaning
changed through travel
three words add
two and two
together for five.
After Jean Knill’s lovely poem last week, I was very pleased to hear from Zoya Gautam again this week, and receive some new mirror and haiku poems. Zoya created Princess of the Night, and shared it here in June 2009, which is nearly two years ago now. Time flies when you’re having fun!
These new offerings are also wonderful, and there is much more at Zoya’s blogs: horizon next and insane2bsane
Zoya wanted both the haikus that follow Cinders to be combined under the caption ‘love’.
Thanks to Zoya for creating and sharing the poems. Enjoy and have a great start to the week…
_’ cinders ‘
incandescence
the word is soft on the senses
its meaning grows upon me
light born of a heated object
so i look at your being
losing myself in your thoughts
till i surface in your irises
a tear like liquid gasoline
dousing the cinders of sorrow
aglow with my agonies
your incandescence ..
~ `~ ~ `~
_’ love ‘
water in your eyes
burns like a flame in the skies
each star is a tear ..
~ ~
no smoke and no heat
i watch the incandescence
of silent sorrows .
Today we have a lovely nature folding mirror poem by Jean Knill, who has her own blog and also blogs at Writelink. The poem is very apt after a sunny early spring morning. Here’s Jean’s account of how the poem came to life:
My inspiration for this poem started when I opened the curtains on the French window and sat down at the table next to it to have breakfast. It was just getting light. The trees in next door’s garden were dark against the sky, and we could make out some little birds on the high branches. Later, sitting on top of a double decker bus driving through the Dorset countryside, I marvelled at the colours of the trees and other vegetation we were passing when the sun came out from behind the clouds.
I wanted to write a folding mirror poem, but some of the words that came to mind were quite lengthy and I couldn’t mirror them in the right place in the other half of the verse. They were going to make the poem seem lopsided. So I decided to count syllables instead, as I do when I write haiku. This poem was the result.
The syllable count is: 5-9-7-5-9-7 (4) 7-9-5-7-9-5
Thanks for explaining the poem Jean, and also for creating and sharing it…and the syllables lesson too.
Nature’s Kaleidoscope
In early morning
leafless black branches are silhouettes
against the lightening sky.
Small winged acrobats
swing among the flimsy topmost stems
before flying off en masse.
Here comes the sun,
flames the sky with orange streaks,
climbing higher, turning trees into
a kaleidoscope.
Gold, copper and lime emerge
from dull grey bark until a cloud shroud
melts them off again.
Today, fmpoetry is delighted to present a Marc Latham poem that appeared in the fresh off the press final instalment of Wendy Webb’s mermaid saga, Mermaids Off Cromer Pier and Other Poems.
Thanks to Wendy for accepting the poem into the book, and Happy Valentine’s to all the diamond mermaids out there…
The Diamond Mermaid
setting sail from pungent ports
sailors voyaged day and night
navigating sea by stars
enduring searing sun and sleeting snow
Inuit, Viking, Inca and Maori
seeking counsel with
ocean ethereal
nature’s wonder and only
Mermaid diamreM
angel high diamond low
depths dolphinian
marine life confidante
Flipper, Willy, Nemo and Moby
swimming tropical islands and arctic ice
using sonar and memory
mermaids sometimes swim with ships
when they smell something fishy
Here’s a quick stream of consciousness ditty by Marc Latham, about how whatever you do can be spun negatively, and especially if you are isolated/in a minority group.
Not saying it’s always that way of course, as sometimes the majority’s criticism of the loner/minority is deserved.
It’s for the beloved Greenygrey and supporters, who are at this very moment locked in battle against the dreaded Grand Council.
Twist and Shake the Snake
you get back
what you put in
or so they say
but, what if your
input is
twisted
by god
no, by your fellow
those who want self
right up there above
behind your back
Today we have a poem Wendy Webb created combining three poetry forms she has created. It appeared in the February issue of eTips, which is freely available upon request from Wendy and the Norfolk poets.
Wendy’s explanation of the forms and the poem follows MECHOGI ANDROS. Thanks to Wendy for creating and sharing it, and publishing FM poetry and publicising this website in Tips.
In the above example, this poem meets the rules of form for a Magi (3 verses, of 3 lines each, with 3 words per line; no syllable count is necessary, and simple punctuation is used). It also meets form requirements for the Echotain (using echo sounds; using positive images in whatever shape enhances the message: in this case, an hourglass). It also meets form requirements for an Andropian (nine lines forming a saltire, Scottish cross, in which lines one and nine use the same echo word, though variation is allowed; the title uses the repeating word plus the crux of the cross). P.S: My shortest accepted poem was THREE WORDS – yours could be… a blank page! Tattoed on your skin. Or shared in 4-D inside an art gallery!
In order to write a Freestyle Mechogi Andros, it is recommended that you break all of the above rules, particularly the concrete nature of this form and to treat it like a Freestyle Haiku. For best results, reduce to the fewest words / syllables to write your message. For eloquence, surround the poem with white space and submit to your chosen editor. Bear in mind that nothing is more eloquent than silence, absence and emptiness. The first poet whose poem is accepted for publication, let me know.
P.S. Marc Latham has a humorous non-FM poem published on everydaypoets today.
mistYmuse 