for the Love of Humanity -redux

Dew laden palms hang under midnight glow

reflecting lunar diamonds off green spears.

 

soft evening breeze brings forth a dancing flow  

small shocks of light reflect within each tear

 

which falls to earth 

abandoning

its high collective perch 

one small drop at a time

 

cascading journeys sliding southward bound

night’s swirling mist create pools on the ground

 

and with each teardrop’s tiny splash 

an echoed cry through smoke and flash

 

turquoise tattered butterflies stop to view

as clouds dissipate with sun’s mourning dew

 

the path is dangerous but clear

yet they hear the world’s voice

 and know they’re near

 

the shifting paradigm of consciences

will let the light shine on all injustice

 

be free brave little butterflies 

take your wings and expose the lies

 

the soul of the earth has

been assaulted with bombs and gas

 

for the love of humanity 

lay down arms of insanity

 

a global evolution has begun

What a unique time to be in the sun.

 

 

☮TheMsLvh © 2012

submitted to dVerse

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I Must Surrender- rondeau redoublé

  

 

I must surrender the mind’s hold,

let go the blaze trapped in my head.

Times have changed. Leaving misty old

perceptions of what is, now dead.

 

Raised independent – so inbred,

to never swallow what was told.

To always question – not be led,

I must surrender the mind’s hold.

 

Events have changed my journey’s road;

the day I flew but fell instead.

All my dreams dying – turning cold -

let go the blaze trapped in my head.

 

I never feared what lay ahead,

those days of youth brought suns of gold;

so quick to alter by moon’s end,

Times have changed. Leaving misty old

 

faint memories pulled from the void.

Of better days where I transcend -

to grasp a breath and long behold

perceptions of what is, now dead.

 

Succumb to pain, I hide in bed;

heal mind and body, feel controlled.

New dreams will come a doctor said  -

relax and breath and let unfold.

I must surrender.

 

 

 

☮TheMsLvh © 2011

Image Courtesy of DiegoUnspire

Submitted to With Real Toads and dVerse Pub Open Link#9

 

California Ink In Motion by TheMsLvh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
 

 

*Technically speaking a rondeau redoublé is made of six quatrains ended by a hemistich (of exactly the same type as the one in the rondeau form, and built on the first verse as well). The 24 verses, 4 of which are found twice (in the first stanza and as endings of stanzas 2-5) all belong to only two rhyme groups, the tricky scheme of this form is:

ABAB BAB1 ABA2 BAB3 ABA4 BABAh

Hats – Terza Rima

   In my discovery of the different forms of poetry,  I came across the Terza Rima.  This is my first attempt using this form.  Hope it reads well.  I have included its description of the form below. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. A  bit singy-songy I fear.

 

 

I have worn several hats throughout the years;

reflecting different roles I played each day.

Subjective meanings – kept as souvenirs.

 

A feathered birthday hat inviting play;

adorned year after year with no delay -

another wish on candles if I may?

 

A mournful hat weeps sadness of betray -

A smoke-stained cap that kissed a Reggae song -

A lover’s chapeau which will never stray.

 

There was a hat I dared not keep for long;

’cause it belonged to the quick stepping cop -

who chased me for the mischief I did wrong.

 

My favorite hat sold never in a shop,

uniting words on paper to be sung:

A Poet’s hat worn ’till the last ink drop.

 

Such memories in hats when I was young,

show steps of life upon each ladder’s rung.

 

☮TheMsLvh © 2011

 

Image: Hats on Ladder image by DecoDanny courtesy Google Images

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 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Form

Terza rima is a three-line stanza using chain rhyme in the pattern A-B-A, B-C-B, C-D-C, D-E-D. There is no limit to the number of lines, but poems or sections of poems written in terza rima end with either a single line or couplet repeating the rhyme of the middle line of the final tercet. The two possible endings for the example above are d-e-d, e or d-e-d, e-e. There is no set rhythm for terza rima, but in English, iambic pentameter is generally preferred.

History

The first known use of terza rima is in Dante’s Divina Commedia. In creating the form, Dante may have been influenced by the lyric form used by the Provençal troubadours. The three-line pattern may have been intended to suggest the Holy Trinity. Inspired by Dante, other Italian poets, including Petrarch and Boccaccio, began using the form.

The first English poet to write in terza rima was Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it for his Complaint to His Lady. Although a difficult form to use in English because of the relative paucity of rhyme words available in a language which has, in comparison with Italian, a more complex phonology, terza rima has been used by Milton, Byron (in his Prophecy of Dante) and Shelley (in his Ode to the West Wind and The Triumph of Life). Thomas Hardy also used the form of meter in ‘Friends Beyond’ to interlink the characters and continue the flow of the poem. A number of 20th-century poets also employed the form. These include Archibald MacLeish, W. H. Auden, Andrew Cannon, William Carlos Williams, T. S. Eliot, Derek Walcott, Clark Ashton Smith, James Merrill, Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur. [Information source :Wikipedia]

This House Shines Dark – a Triolet

 

This house shines dark while you’re away;

Bring home your sunshine drenched in loving smiles.

-  I drown with anguish every time you stray,

This house shines dark while you’re away.

Remembering the words you’d always say,

   “No worries my dear - Not so many miles!”

This house shines dark while you’re away;

   Bring home your sunshine drenched in loving smiles.

 

☮TheMsLvh © 2011

Image source: Dark House

 

French in origin, and likely dating to the thirteenth century, the triolet is a short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout. The requirements of this fixed form are straightforward: the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines; the second line is repeated in the final line; and only the first two end-words are used to complete the tight rhyme scheme.

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Thunder Buffalo -Sonnet

John Keats (1795-1821) used elaborate choice of words and very sensational imagery. It is no wonder he is one of the main pioneers of England ‘s Romantic Movement. This sonnet follows Keats’s sonnet format with abcabdcabcdede rhyming scheme   Keats was particular in his iambic pentameter rhyming scheme and structure of the entire sonnet . 

 

 

A feathered ritual danced long ago;

she faintly heard the elders ancient call,

envisioned - living nature’s way of life.

The primal drone of thunder buffalo;.

abruptly crossing earthly hallow sprawl -

Lakota warriors on horseback dare.

Life’s rhymic cycle dawns, awakes the ear -

resounding earth’s cold tremble ‘neath white snow;

alerting wolves in winter’s bondage thrall.

She questioned, self-induced bewildered fear -

and clutches tight her sacred totem bear;

accepts her blood; the blood of native lore.

 

Today’s the day she’ll run with white-tail deer -

within the Shaman’s love, forever more.

 

☮TheMsLvh © 2011

 

“Poetry should surprise by a fine excess and not by singularity—it should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.”-John Keats

 

artist - Pam McCabe - Art.com
Summited to dVerse Poetry Pub

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Cloud Shapes in Blue Skies – Itialian Sonnet

Italian Sonnet

Night’s shelter brings relief to end the day,

exhaling whispers grieve from parched dry lips.

As if cold wind abandoned sailing ships;

marooned -  in deep lost waters, here I lay.

Conflicting thoughts merge, lacking words to say, 

my willing heart drawn into your eclipse -

has left me drained. A warm tear gently slips

down a familiar path, wet lines portray.

I long for truth behind your phantom eyes;

release your secret world, allow me in.

I hunger laughter shared on sunny days -

remember finding cloud shapes in blue skies?

I miss your music dancing on my skin,

provoking trust - Oh friend, won’t you please stay?

☮TheMsLvh © 2011

sumitted to dVerse poets

Image borrowed from Google

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Setting Sun

   This was inspired by watching the damage caused by hard drugs. The rise of drug use in my area has stolen many young lives recently. Perhaps you also  have witnessed this on your local news. Without insurance of their own or parents, kids are being lost.  There are little to no recourses for these kids when they do cry for help. Everyone cannot afford Betty Ford or Malibu in U.S.A.  Prison might be their only survival, but then, prisons are over-filled,  full of nasty drugs as well.

SETTING SUN

Each morning’s painful breath you took,

your body screamed -

addiction gleamed.

Sharp points and rusty spoons; you cook.

 

To rid the touch of crawling skin,

hot needle prick -

perhaps get sick.

Warm rush cements the deadly sin.

 

A long exhale - all worries drain;

erase torment,

without lament.

Your precious scars walk deep in vein.

 

As pain subsides from tender soul,

the prophets cry -

to watch you fly.

The needle swept you in a hole.

 

First glimpse of sun ignites the crave,

as pain returns -

the stomach churns.

Ignoring death’s note etched on grave.

 

Collapsing veins of rivers gone,

in search for new -

within eye’s view.

Dead lines depict a lifestyle drawn.

 

Sad eyes with black holes blindly stray,

to be so lost -

at such a cost.

Their struggle sickens by the day.

 

The needle and the damage done,

Neil Young once wrote -

a famous quote:

“A junkie’s like a setting sun.”

 

_TheMsLvh   © 2011

Image source: The Grantham Journal

submitted to The Sunday Whirl #16

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The Poet Artist

 

Opining souls; a heart-felt plea,

from deep within, the writer chimes.

Selecting prime words is the key,

which draws the reader into rhymes.

 

All poets strive to paint their worlds,

with spilled black ink and feathered tip.

A writer feels the words unfurled,

creating pictures with each script.

 

At times, cold print will strike a chord,

a shock-filled verse brings forth dismay.

Requesting poems - sweetly poured,

inhibit words the poets say.

 

To cavil lines in verses read,

with captious thoughts of words repulse.

Sad broken lives or souls which bled,

disrupt the reader’s warm steel pulse.

 

Addiction plagues the writers quill,

the need to write fulfills the heart.

Imploding spirits scribe to fill

the void, and thus creating art.

 

-TheMsLvh  © 2011

Image source: Google

California Ink In Motion by TheMsLvh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License

A Starry Sonnet

 

A star-filled night can pierce the holy dark:

their brightness splinters light across black sky.

Explosions sprout a star’s enthralling spark-

beyond the fortress deep in space, they fly.

                                            ★

The bright of city lights hold visions blind-

astounding scene of planets dancing high

embracing darkness, lone stars realigned.

A falling star’s sweet voice will crest then die.

                                            ★

Be quick to dream a wish on shooting stars.

Allow no fear of hope to weed your trust-

at times, life’s rattles can inflict deep scars.

Begin by wishing troubles turn to dust.

                                            ★

Your silver coins in pockets, merely thrown;

     to wish upon a star; a wish to own!

 

 

-TheMsLvh  © 2011

Photo source: Google

submitted to The Sunday Whirl 

Thank you Viv!        

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Drown a Flask

  

 

Confusion purl inside my head,

sad thoughts besiege this weary soul.

Words spoken - carelessly said,

alone, I plummet down a hole.

 

Can eyes see pain behind my mask,

concealing anguish buried deep?

Escape your own pain, drown a flask,

Your pseudo façade makes you weep.

 

Expressions glaring dissension,

this anger boils your mad face red.

The wine color brings forth tension,

unsaid words scratch till hearts are shred. 

 

Appears to be a no-win lot,

old patterns never seem to lie.

Let distance heal this love torn knot,

before time takes toll and we die.

 

 

-TheMsLvh © 2011

image source: Google image

 

 

California Ink In Motion by TheMsLvh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License