The Challenge of Art

as a poet I’ve discovered
that the beauty an artist intends
is never quite transferred
from mind to completed project
Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony
in all its glory is merely a glimmer
of what was in his mind.
Van Gogh’s Starry Night
while stunning
cannot compare
to the splendour
of the loops and swirls
that he saw in his mind
before he picked up his brush
and I so often
strive for words
that will stun the reader
with their beauty
but must finely settle
for something
so much less
even this poem
does not really say
what I wish it to.

 

An Ottava Rima about writing Ottava Rima

each stanza is just eight lines long, Okay?
there’s more you need to know though, you’ll agree
lines one, three, five will follow rhyme scheme “A”
and two, four, six – let’s call that rhyme scheme “B”
iambic pentameter is the way
to write Ottava Rima poetry
the final couple lines use “C” to rhyme
(now toss this poem – it isn’t worth a dime!)

~~

at dVerse, we are writing Ottava Rima poems

Science!

group of scientists
unravel world’s mysteries –
lost in parking lot

~~

Today, my 14 year old son had the amazing opportunity to go to Canada Light Source Synchrotron with his school science club to do some experiments.  On the way home, they got stuck in the parking lot…I haven’t heard (yet) all the details, but got to pondering the humour of a group of scientists getting lost in a parking lot…

Condescending Worm – Part 2

how is it that you even dare to teach
to me of things that I already know
you speak of things that far exceed your reach
and think there is no need for you to grow

I do not need to hear you condescend
that’s why I crushed you down beneath my feet
and ground my heel so that you could not mend
the silence that I hear from you is sweet

I never deigned to teach to you of slime
there was no need to speak of what you knew
for that is where you spent all of your time
in sun, in rain, in snow, in sleet, in dew

oh condescending worm you are a bore
and so I’ll hear you speak to me no more

~~

note: this poem might not be about a worm.

~~

sharing with dVerse for OLN.

and in case you are wondering, yes, there was a Part 1 – posted about a year ago https://quest4peas.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/condescending-worm/

cavemen in the kitchen

My kids are all neanderthals
you doubt me? Ask their mother!
if they’re not painting on the walls
they’re beating on each other

the other day they must have chased
a mammoth through the kitchen
for all the dishes are displaced
and the noise had me a twitchin’!

my youngest, wearing just a strip
of cloth tied on with wire
is holding sticks with quite a grip
and trying to make fire

they’re savages, it’s plain to see
and sometime they’re a trial
but I love them and they love me!
so I’ll keep them…(for a while)

Dryer Lint

dryer’s lint’s an echo of
stuff I like to wear
it’s little bits of thread and cloth
and ‘though there’s not much there:
the colour and the texture says
a bit about my stuff
but makes me wonder:
what’s bellybutton lint
an echo of?

~~

“echo” is the word of the day for today’s quadrille prompt at dVerse

Ostracon

you, like me, know the name
of the one who is causing you
the most grief, the one
who is fragmenting your soul

I, like you, hope that my name
is not the one thought of
by too many people when they think
of who is fragmenting them

but that is the way of it
isn’t it?
that we would be willing
to cast another aside
but would not, ourselves,
be thus cast?

for what use
is a clay jar
after it has been
hurled against stone?

~~

for dVerse OLN

Humpty Dumpty – alternate version

It is true I lack barely a thing
for that is my life as a king
I have horses and men to serve me
yet my vision is clouded when I see

that peasant who does not bow down
to me when I come to his town
I begin to suspect that this man
has hatched some diabolical plan

to see me, his sovereign and lord
murdered by him and his horde
but mark me! For I’ll have him fall
as if from the top of a wall

I’ll have my army attend
to him as if they would mend
him but I’ll have you know
their concern is but a show

for I shall instruct all my men
not to let that fiend rise again
they’ll feign regret as they leave
but I myself shall not grieve

~~

the prompt today at dVerse is to write a dramatic monologue about a planned murder, using anapests as the basic metrical unit, and an aabb, ccdd, etc rhyme scheme. I didn’t manage the meter as well as I would have liked.