Well, I Like the First Few Lines

This one was  rather uninspired, so I had little motivation to polish it.  8 and 6 syllable lines with direct or slant rhyme on even-line pairs.  Weakly instated alternating ba-BAH meter.  This is a good example of a poem that later getting scrapped for spare parts.  Check out the post prior to this one for a chance to win a gift card, right now if you entered... you'd win by default. Well, I Like the First Few Lines I've practiced conversations I doubt I'll ever speak A dozen words deleted  For every one you'll read I've wondered what adventures wait If we were once again So daft and rash and worry-free And eager to pretend It's often unproductive though  To dwell on "could've been" It's better leave it rest and sleep And see who dreams therein

A Something

This week is basic rhyme, 8 syllable lines, iambic.  Has a Dr. Seuss feel, but not a Dr.Seuss feeling.  Straight rhyme is what got me interested in poems in the first place.  

A Something

A Something meant to be forgot
(A thing between the Speck and Spot)

A nearly self-aborted thought

An asterisk

*A formless clot

Unleashing then a ropey plot

A String asked Knot, "Ask naught, ask not

Ignore it now, and wish it rots-

That Something meant to be forgot."

The Something though had been begot

It quivered up and fetched a pot

The Soup was done, the Cook was shot

The Something meant to be forgot

Exhumed the Space, the Speck, the Spot

Unstitched the tethered stringy plot

Then winking once, it was no more

What was, was not

Some Something had effected lots

The Crowded Room

Word collage.  Arial is not fixed-width after all.  That probably accounts for the occasional hiccup I've encountered.  Now using Courier font.

I had planned the start working on this style next year, but I lost interest in backwards and forwards faster than anticipated. Unless I come up with something new or interesting, I'm done with bw/fw, and now I can play with word collages.



The Crowded Room

st        excuse  how     me!
st             are   you?
stuttered and stammered   yammered
     over          possibly     hammered
punch    heard    polite              AT
         music someplace             HIS
                                   POINT

food,    pets,    scents over
 (Chex    (shed             whelming
    Mix)       ding)     per
                            fume

everyone    I'm   not
 yawns    impressed  listening
over            humdrum
   this   Babel     commotion
scene  babbling    and   crackling
   "Have some egg nog!" logs

    This is where I step     out
                             for some air.

The Arranged Marriage

Homophones.  Turned out like all the rest, but I can't say I was very enthused about it.

The Arranged Marriage

A mending gesture

Amending jest, your

Cementing grasp

Seems sending, rasped,

"To agreements made!"

To agree meant maid's

Loss of surname

Laws of sir's named

For nobility

For no ability

Of common sense

Of calm and censed

Bridal comforts

Bride, I'll come. Forts

Arranged a feast

A range of East-

-ern delights and sari

Earned daylight and, sorry

No more hands to shake

Time to cut the cake

The Residual

Word collage.  Tried to capture something like a battlefield after the fact.  If it's a little unfocused, then I blame it on  the cat for waking me up so many times last night.  Enjoy.

The Residual

                             I f

            flustered       altered     

furled     and  fl          squeezing

    from            uttered something

         nonsense     fleeting

    from          sprinting        squinting

   mud          and      these  bones 

       diamond     things   are   such

       i                       as    I      would

    r    gs                                   not do

      n

indignant,     indigenous     indi

 that    which     integrated      go

    left   be              insurrection    away

us            hind      up           proudly

     ambushed           held   fast

it's  a   good    ravenous    

 torn     day   time     flocking

t runk     to  die   for    crows

Attic at Sunrise

Word collage emulating the bits of dust that hang in the air and catch the light.  Even  using a fixed-width font (in this case, Arial), blogspot will sometimes refuse to perfectly line things up the way I typed them.


Attic at Sunrise

    twirling          floating      
        motes      of          light
     moting                           er
   e             the              than
     the                  dust
re           hushing         still
  mains     h our        lingering
yellowed          old    
       papers       photos

  cracked   panes    creak
          painstakingly  
humble      for         drafting
    antiques   ever     sleepy
                          y        spider

cloying     legato     smells
   wooden       ck    of
 boards       ro    ing
        captured       horses
   w             withdrawn
     i         ta tt er e d
      s              paintings
        p       of
          s            yesterdays

The Canary Lookout

homophones, because I like 'em.  

The Canary Lookout

Can aeries of

Canaries of

Good pedigree from

Good pets agree from

Alarming warbles,

"All arm in! War bulls!"

Helter-skelter

Held our shelter

Deep within the earth

They were safer

They were, save for

A trickling few

A tickling fume

Wafted from the clay

The lookout saved the day

For a praise in a

Coat of arms

For appraising a

Code of harms

Emblazoned on a shield:

Canaries in a mine

Germ Party

Homophones.  The adverb form of supple can also be spelled "supply", but I thought that would just look like I was repeating the VERB "supply" used in the line above it.  Homographs can be tricky little buggers. 

Germ Party

Weekend celebration

We can sell abrasion

Influence all

Influenzal

Colonizing tingles

Call her a

Cholera

Staff injections

Staph infections

Always there to mingle

Wheeze out and cough in

We sowed and coffins

Supply their aids

Supplely there, AIDS
Lead: the poison
Led the poise on
That, or maybe shingles

Car and Raindrops

 I call this style "word collage," though if anyone knows the actual term, let me know.  The last time I did something like this was in 2010 (http://poemsbygreg.blogspot.com/2010/12/smoldered.html)  Previously I have used this style for confusion and complexity, but today's instead focuses on shaping.  .  

I wanted to make it longer, but there isn't much to say about falling rain.


Car and Raindrops
                                    
     la             gashing   the
sp      ing        immead     air 
      sh                       iacy     clean
                                     o
                                        f
        sl  id    in     g   tire's    peace
     out                       bu        
            of            tur     len   
 control!                     ce

                           gutters
                     e         f         u
                     s          n      n
  guard rails   o           e    l   
                     r              l  e  
                                     d      

                  et             
               te   er          
         on             from
       the                   the  
  ed                         
    g                             cloud
    e

    t                                 t
   o                                  o

  fall                              fa
                                       l
is to                              l
        s
c   a                    is     to     return
   r     h    

Lasers in Space!

Homophonic and not particularly serious.

"Mere" has the superlative form of "merest", but no comparative form.
I presume the comparative would then be "more mere," but that sounds awful.
Though ungrammatical, "merer" is understandable and works homophonically.


Lasers in Space!

All turn at
Alternate
Ways to mirror
Waste to merer
Appearances
Up here in sus-
-tained forces
Stained, forced us
To squint, essential
To quintessential
Laser's trick
Lays our strict
Decency aside
Raise the blasters up
Now it's time to die!

A Blustery Autumn Day

I decided to do a few shorter bw/fw stanzas instead of a single longer one.  then I ended with a few free lines to end the spell.  nothing deep this week.


A Blustery Autumn Day

Gales spiraling leaves

Drafting over dew

(do-over)

Drafty leaves

Spiraling gales

Outpouring of clouds darkened

Then to hail

A tapping Morse code

More tapping, a hail

To then-darkened clouds

Of pouring out

Hunkering

Gently stepping

Puddles sloshing

I caught a girl by surprise

Shared umbrellas

Intimated

Umbrellas shared

Surprise by girl, a caught eye

Sloshing puddles

Stepping gently

Hunkering

The storm passed

We remained, huddled

With the smell of clarity

Firebug

homophones.  looking forward to next year so I can move on to a completely new style.


Firebug

The audacity!
The odd acidy
Gas particles
*gasp* articles
Wither atwixt
With her at wick's
Relevant end
Revel and and
'ware the air or
Wear the error
Warming handle's
Warning, and I'll
Depart
Deep art:
The flame

The Hunt

bw/fw.  It's not the longest, but it feels complete, and I have other things to get done today.


The Hunt

Mortality
Blindly
Searching for forever
Calendars current
Under every rock
Another day passed
Sinking sun
Moments in years
In moment's
Sun sinking past days
Another rock
Every undercurrent
Calenders forever
For searching
Blindly, mortality

Amateur Actors' Hour

homophones and near-homophones.


Amateur Actors' Hour

Utterly dizzy
Uttered lead, is he
Speaking in riddles?  In
Speaking in Ritalin
Made him miss his line

Skittish movement
Skit in moves meant
To brandish gusto
Two brandished gusts, oh
There blows the script

Barely-fair costumes and
Burly fares cost humans
A plausible bundle
Applause-able, bungled
Props here hear no cheer
It's Amateur Actors' Hour
Of that this is clear

The Restless Empty House

backwards/forwards.  I'm happy to take requests, if anyone has something they'd like to see.  


The Restless Empty House

Dormancy
In support of simplicity
Doors closing
Footsteps retreating
Forebodings come out
Means: miasmic
What is this
Shrouded-quiet
Just-beyond-sight
Anomaly?
Site beyond just quiet
Shrouded
This is what
Miasmic means
Outcome: foreboding's
Retreating footsteps
Closing doors
Simplicity of support in
Dormancy

A Swamp Thing

I went canoe camping in a swamp once.  Lots of bugs and flora growing on the water,, the ground, hanging from the trees... lively place, I suppose.

Poem is another alternating homophone/simple rhyme.  From a writing perspective, alternating with easy rhymes is a cleansing complement to the somewhat taxing generation of coherent homophones. 

A Swamp Thing

I'd pacified
Petty hate
Ides pass if I'd
Check the date
Idle lei 
Round the throat
I'd allay
Strength by rote

In knee-deep, eating
All that's still
In needy peat, in
Algal swill
Dismal threats
Rotting masts
A small thread
Crumbles last
Amidst the fungus
Wilding gnats
A mist that fun gusts
Fuel the fast-
Fading past
Dust to mud
Ash to gas

Full Moon Walk

Alternating homophonic and rhyming lines. 


Full Moon Walk

A tentative calm, a

Feeling found

Attentive comma,

(I missed a sound)

I've found another 

Place to fit it

Five hounds and others

Race to fitted

Star-sung serenades

Broken by clouds

Stars hung air in a 

Redolent shroud 

A cape for a spell

Sereneness crept

Escape for a spell

In measured step
A frog and crickets
Humming in tune
Off rocks and creek, it's
Dawn all too soon

Barroom Photographs

Six-syllable lines with even-lined rhyming. Intended meter of unSTRESSED unSTRESSED unSTRESSED.

"Might've" is not in the dictionary (also absent are "could've" and "would've"). I use them anyway, as I've always used them in speech.


Barroom Photographs

He might've said too much
That man that does'nt speak
Confessing to a beer
The secrets that he keeps

And she, the quiet-eyed
Presents herself demure
A dear old-fashioned prop
A part of her allure

Perhaps they shared a sigh
Behind the picturesque
Enunciated grins
And unencumbered jest

She might have been distraught
Or walked amongst the rain
The liquid on her cheeks
Are maybe but a stain

He might have been renowned
Or roughly debonair
He might have made a toast,
That man that was not there

Specimen A

I didn't feel like writing last week, so I didn't.  I didn't feel like writing this week, but I managed to churn out a sub-par backwards and forwards piece.  I think I need to alternate styles more; I'm getting burned out on the two forms I've focused on this year.

Specimen A

Remarkable Specimen A
Sitting still
All after curiosity
Whether it feels
It's studied
Categorized
Probing instruments
Precisely measured
Science!
Measured precisely
Instruments probing
Categorized
Studied
It feels it
Weathered curiosity
After all,
Still sitting

A specimen remarkable

Entertainment, Tonight!

While I've never been interested in the day-to-day affairs of celebrities, I don't feel as much angst toward them as this poem might lead one to think.  Homophones.


Entertainment, Tonight!


Sweater-vested
Absolutions
Sweat or vested
Ab solutions
A dressing-up
Of vacancies
Addressing up
Of vacant scenes
Oh so charming
In blazing glitter
Oh such harm in
Emblazing litter
Pretty please
Let me be leaving
Pretty pleas
Left me believing
In the skinny jeans
From the magazines

The Gambler

I'm not sold on the title, and it's becoming more difficult to come up with new homophones.  For the record, I don't know if the Sauk tribe have any casinos.

The Gambler

A fool, loaded
A fully-loaded
Lucky surge
Look, he's urged
To wind down right
Too wined, downright
Lost his shoes
Lost issues
Betting it all
Bedding a tall
Black rum
Blah, crumbs
Of more to lose
Adventure Las Vegas
Of mores too loose
I'd venture a vague guess
Lost more than the Sauks
Lost more than the socks
And barefoot, ventured home

Vagabond

backwards and forwards.   I'm getting a little bored with these, I find the homophone pieces much more fun.


Vagabond


Lowness
Necessitates vagrancy
What does one say
To so many flaws?
Tooth to nail
Dishevelment.
Understand?
Assume,
Just don't judge.
Dont' just assume
Understand:
Dishevelment,
Nail to tooth,
Flaws many.
So to say,
One does what
Vagrancy necessitates;
Lowness

The Celebrated One

lines are homophonic or simple rhyming,   it might need a little polish, but for now I like it.  



The Celebrated One


I almost said hello
(our eyes did not meet)
I almost sat hollow
Lockets at your feet
Where with all the awed
Gathered in a heap
Wherewithal, the odd
Vanity we keep
Fallen higher
Unchecked gyres
Fall in, "Hi," or
Well, not quite

While passing on the street
I almost said hello,
But our eyes did not meet

Starry Starry-Eyed Night

homophones again, same theme as last week.

Starry Starry-Eyed Night

I'll just suppose
I'll juxtapose
Mundane ice teas for
Monday niceties, four
Half-festive hours with you
Have fast devoured, with you
By a door, expectant
My adored, expect ten
Wishes on a star
Which is on austere
Schedules of winking
Schedule us, when can
I find time to breathe?
Dizzyingly alive
On this starry eve

Summer Love

homophones.

Summer Love

Sum her?
Summer
Sun-swept dresses
Sun's wept tresses
Portraying golden
Portraits in gold and
Cherries, it's endless smiles
Chariots and less miles
Dividing this splendor
Divining this, planned our
Time together
Thyme to heather
Lovely smelling
Love leads melding
Heart to heart
Hearth to hearth
To altar
To alter
The name of you
We, once single,
Now one, we two

My Dear Hurricane,

bw/fw.  by "August," I did not mean the month.


My Dear Hurricane,

August
Lips smitten with
Wailing sirens'
Speech of love
Drowning out
Sputtering words
(once spoken rain)
Like falling devotion
A gathering lake gathering a
Devotion
Falling like rain
Spoken once
Words sputtering out
Drowning love of speech
Sirens wailing
With smitten lips
A gust

Crossroad Tavern

homophonic.

Crossroad Tavern

In the
Inn the
Worlds apart
Whirled a part
As parked
A spark
Beside the stereo
B-side, the stereo
Bellows of lame warnings
Billows of flame warming
A smog-brimmed cell
As mugs' brimmed cel-
-ebration, unknowing in-
-ebriation ongoing in
This place, disjointed
Displaced, this joint, it
Hears the inferno
Here's the inn for no
Reason now aflame

Estrangement

meter and rhyme. 


Estrangement


I wrote a dozen letters
Standing still today
Confiding in a pen
What words, I will not say

Revised a dozen letters
Stubbed and sleekly gray
Sincerely signed and stamped
Concise, precise arrays

I sealed a dozen letters
Bearing each your name
The flag still loitered down
The missives still remained

I poured a dozen letters
Tonics, one could state
I wrote a dozen letters,
And threw them all away

This Elastic Moment

bw/fw.

This Elastic Moment


Startlement standing
Under all completion (almost)
Clocks dilate
Time of all ends lengthening
Celebrating time spent
Cheap hours
Exquisite minutes
Begging for seconds
Only now extinguished

Now only seconds for begging
Minutes exquisite
Hours cheep
Spent time celebrating
Lengthening
Ends all of time
Die late, clocks
Almost completion
All-understanding
Startlement

The Night Bees

Writing poems is easy.  Writing poems that people are interested is not.  This week is meter and rhyme with some oxymoron flair. 


The Night Bees

One late night one day
There crawled into my knee
A vacant jester
Knelling pester
Ever-present bee

One loud whispered ache
In effigy of sleep
A tossing-turning
Ire concerning
Ever-present bees

Three grim gladdened shots
Deplete to fill a need
A numbness quelling
Beastly knelling
Ever-present bees

The Tryout

bw/fw.

The Tryout


Start to finish
One by one
Try their best
Champions
Toiling gladiators
Five against three
Now at odds
Hurdling
Magnificent
Hurtling
Odds at now
Three against five
Gladiators toiling
Champions
Best their try
One by one
Finish, to start

Sunset Requiem

Sunset Requiem


Here, a wake
Here, awake
Denied a nod
Then I'd a gnawed
Listless candle
List less scandals
Pouring overhead emotions

Poring over heady motions
Meant to say, "Bye"
Men to say by
A flicked wick
Afflicts a wisp
Of smoke to seal the rite
Farewell dear sun, good night

The Composer's Underworld

A good show, this week.  Five syllable lines of STRESS unSTRESS unSTRESS, with even-numbered lines ending in "eh" vowel rhyme (with some resulting direct rhyme).  Enjoy!


The Composer's Underworld


"For a nobler staff;
The baton at rest."

-The Composer late
Thumbing pages, yet
Often gaping back
Capturing the chest's
Modesty motif,
Pizzicato breath
Pale legato bars,
What else is there left?

Half-forgotten modes
Hung in trouble clefs
Racing to compose
Serenades of death
Sweeping dolce chords
Allargando jest
Harmonized with flat
Classical regret
Cadenced murmurs fade
No applause is met

Here hereafter now
Halls denote a deaf
Stone atonement, for
Silence is respect
Face the music now,
What else is there left?

The Golden Years

the homophone strikes again! 



The Golden Years


Forgiven guilt
For given gilt
Lost as crews
Lost a screw
Made of solid gold

A cost amounting 
Accost a mounting
Search to recoup
Surge to re-coup
Youth again from old

In summer he
Re-covered hard where
In summary
Recovered hardware 
So operates
Soap opera, it's
The screwed and the bold. 

Comfort Food

I'm running low on homophones, so this week's is short, light, metered and rhymed. 


Comfort Food


The huddled living lividly
In scarCities of common guise
Consoling ever vividly
In matter to metabolize

The hunger leering lucidly
Commanding craven cravings, I
Contort my ken of calories
And reach for further curly fries

Monastery Break-In

backwards/forwards.


Monastery Break-In


Men + a-
A door
Open it, "Leave!"
Closing in
Fist raised
Taught a lesson
Well, tried
He pressed the face to pulp
It goes to show
One sermonizing
Lacks of preparation
Omission of dogs
Lead to this
Later,
This to lead
Dogs of a mission
Preparation of lax sermonizing
One show to go
Pulpit to face the press
He tried well,
"Lessen a taut raised fist
In closing,
Leave it open.
Adore,
Amen."

He Bet His Life

starts with rhymed haiku, ends with a homophonic stanza.  I freely admit the haiku is half-ass; it's hard to be motivated with this beautiful weather.  I might clean it up later. 


He Bet His Life


The Loser, sloppy
An envied pot, sure as sin
He felt sure to win

Gulped his gin and lime
Wagered all his money, and
Wagered all his time

"I have nothing left
I must mitigate my debt
Please!  Accept my bet!"


The Winner
Gave in and agreed
To live forever, he
Gave in, and a greed
To live for every
Gamble to succeed
On certainty of breadth
Gambol to secede
Uincertainty of breath
He won a life!  No-
The winnings: one undeath

Canvas the Dusk

I plan to do editing this week.  No new poem, but here's one from early 2007 that I am fond of.  free verse, of all things.

Canvas the Dusk

The seas disease this easel

Dragged blue where once was white

It's not a blue period

It's an

Exclamation

Point

I guess then we're co-muters

Because our lips are silent

And while our thoughts do travel,

The voice is slowed by traffic

Expression is a trickle

During the rush hour

Trying to arrive

Red shift blue

The purpose of the painting:

To diffuse unused hues

The Criminal

backwards and forwards. 

The Criminal


Twelve at hand
Second the motions
Alleged by ticking
Tiny hammers
Scuffle on,
Hanging of robes
Momentum ground on:
No immorality
Jusitce
Behind closed doors
Decisions, decisions
Doors closed behind
Justice
Immortality?
On no grounds.
Momentum
Ropes of hanging
On scaffolds
Hammers tiny,
Ticking by a ledge
Motions the second hand
At twelve

The Guitar Player

short and simple, with some homophonics.  I almost subtitled it with someone's name. 



The Guitar Player


The bard intones
The bar in tones
That rose in verse
The rows, inverse
Of crowds in rapt attention

One-ee-and-uh two
One need and a tune
Resonation
Resignation,
Strum it 'til it's done

The lyrics from the stage,
"I'll be famous someday..."
And he sang it so often,
That we put it on his grave
I'll be famous, someday

Relics

backwards and forwards.  working titles included "The People Behind the Walls" and "Boogeymen."

Relics


Far beyond secrets
A people hidden
Peripheral
Peeking
(not quite invisible)
Phantasms
Emerging later,
Flashbulb-broken afterimages
Touching nothing
(remain still)
Traces
Still remain
Nothing touching
Afterimages, broken flashbulbs
Later, a merging
Phantasms
In visible quiet knots
Peaking
Peripheral
Hidden peepholes
A secret
Beyond far

Bulletin Board Speeches

homophonic.  

Bulletin Board Speeches


A front all a tack
Instill calm, oddities
Affront all attack
In still commodities
To dis-Orient manufacturing
Pause for applause, able
To disorient men you're factoring
Pause for a plausible
Winning poll numb3r
Citizens:
Now the best, strong again!

Waning pall, NUMBer
Citizens
Now the best?  Wrong again
Promise them anything
The moon on a string, gents
Promise them many things
Then moon on a stringent
Raucous frenzy 
Rock us frenzied
To lie is not to sin
Anything to win

Holding Hands on a Beach

Yet another that reads the same backwards.  Enjoy.
 

Holding Hands on a Beach


Valentine's happy comfort
In creased palms
In folded warmth
In one another
Lullabies of
Soothing waves
Eternal
Paradise
Eternal waves
Soothing of lullabies
Another one
In warmth
Enfolded palms
Increased comfort
Happy Valentine's

Wheelchair Cavalry

I can write forwards and backwards.  I like how this one turned out.


Wheelchair Cavalry


Sitting before us
Men, hoarse
Reels whir, we
Watch the flicks
Nurse the worn
In mobile gestures
Lost for something
Unfilmed
Something for lost jest
You're immobile, worn
The nurse flicks the watch
We were real horsemen
Us, before sitting

The Pet Shop

last year I worked primarily on narrative poems, paying close attention to stresses, rhyme and false rhyme.  this year I plan to focus more on homophone poems (like the one below) and on further exploration of the backwards-forwards form. 



The Pet Shop


Eyebrows seeking
I browse, eking
Some to purrs
Sum to purse,
Too cute to pass up

The pet store
Per pet, you all
Marvel us, tells
Marvelous tails
The pet's tore
Perpetual
Delight into the heart

One For the Wall Street Protesters

backwards-forwards.


One For the Wall Street Protesters


Enriched diffidence
The poor's interest
Interpreted fee as collapse
On stable
Distrusts
In securities' exchanged
Insecurities
This trust's
Unstable lapse-
Fiasco!
Interpreted:
Interest pours the dividends
Enriched

They Came With Pitchforks

Starting the year off with more work on the backwards/forwards style. 


They Came With Pitchforks


Arm the lost
Tentatively
Discordant
Jittered reaping
Breathless raving
This union directs a
Man to torch
This location
Embodied
Dislocation
Torch to man
A direct disunion
Raving breathless
Reaping jittered
Discordance
Tentatively
Lost the arm