Get Your Red On

Image courtesy of Shsaplit

Rispetto de la Rouge

Red is sometimes called cinnabar or claret

or ruddy, sanguine, ruby or vermillion,

or raspberry, crimson, poppy or scarlet.

I’ll stop here, since ‘red’ names?  More than a zillion.

Okay, I say with a blush:  Hyperbole.

But the thing is, as a color, red’s got reverbole,

a fancy word for echo. (I forced this rhyme.)

So get your rouge on…it’s paint-the-town-red time.

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Notes:  Poets United Think Tank Thursday used red for their prompt this week.  And because Poetic Asides featured the form Rispetto this week, I decided to go with it for my 'rosy' poem.  (Get it?)

On another note, Marie Elena and Walt chose me (yeah, you 'red' that right!) to be the subject of this week's poets' spotlight over at Poetic Bloomings.  Totally cool and lots of fun.  If you get the chance stop by and see my interview.  And please feel free to leave a comment too if you are so inclined, 'cause I just love that sort of thing, y'know?  Thanks!

A Matter of Charm and Taste

The Snake Charmer - Henri Rousseau, 1907

A Matter of Charm and Taste

“Charmed, I am sssssssure,” said the boa snake

to the man who played airs on his flute.

“Please join me.  I’m having tea and cake

and maybe…perhapsssssss…a bit of fruit.”

The snake-charmer man put down his flute

and replied, “That suits me to a ‘T’.

I could do with some tea, cake and fruit.”

So they went to the old banyon tree.

There, they found a table set for tea

so the snake asked the charmer to serve.

The flute man poured with great gallantry

while the snake consumed an hors d’oeuvre.

The snake remarked, “How nicely you sssssserve

and how nicely you show you have taste.

I think I’ll have another hors d’oeuvre.” ...

... Then he ate the poor flutist with haste.

A warning to all with breeding and taste

be careful with your tea and your cake.  

Do not accept invites made in great haste

especially from a charmed boa snake.

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Notes:  Magpie Tales posted the above objet d'art for use as today's prompt.  I decided to have a bit of fun with it, and chose the form of Pantoum in which to do it.

The picture tells the tale: a railway out of town...

Sepia Saturday posted this wonderful picture from 1910 of the booking office for the London & North Western Railway Company in Waterford, Ireland.

It brought to mind Edwardian era ladies in long dresses and men in suits and duster coats, arriving and departing for a world of different purposes or reasons.  In this, I saw a story - and one fellow's letter (written in the poetic form Novelinee) tells the rest of his tale.

It may be the lowest form of humor...but a pun is fun!

Image courtesy of Discovery Education

 Lexicon Love

So, if you have           

addictionary

you’re hooked on terms.

Cause?  Word-list germs.

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Image courtesy of Bob Canada

Chow Down

A cantina

cannot serve a meal

since the venue

has no menu.

A restaurant

like this only has

surly waiters.

Never caters.

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Notes: The form is Pun-ku.  (Actually, the second poem is a double Pun-ku.  Salvatore Buttaci is a poet and writer who came up with this new humorous poetic form.  It is called the Pun-ku, and it's really fun.  Here's how you do it ...

(1)    Unlike the haiku that allows for a less than strict adherence to the 17-syllable rule, the pun-ku must be exactly 17 syllables long. 

(2)    It contains only four (4) lines arranged syllabically as follows:

Line 1: 4 syllables     Line 2:  5 syllables      Line 3:  4 syllables    Line 4:  4 syllables

(3)    As for the end-rhyme pattern, Lines 1 and 2 do not rhyme. Lines 3 and 4 do.

(4)    The pun-ku must contain a pun on one or more of the words used in the poem.  The subject matter deals with human nature, is light, humorous, or witty.

(5)   The title of the pun-ku can only be one- or two-words long (or short).

Ghosts

The Revenant by Andrew Wyeth, 1949

The Revenant

They say there are no comebacks, but

amidst the sad detritus…what?

A man that’s barely there walks by;

a house with curtains shredded, torn,

the features simply too care-worn…

and hues?  They are in short supply.

Yet, once this place and person meant

a world that’s far from ‘revenant.’

I wish I knew the reasons why.

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Notes:  The form is Nove Otto.  The poem was inspired by the above Andrew Wyeth painting, as thoughtfully provided for by Magpie Tales, for the weekly prompt.

Game On!

Game #4 of the 1912 World Series: NY Giant vs. the Boston Red Sox at the Polo Grounds in NY.  Attribution of photo unknown

Game On

In nineteen twelve, the Polo Grounds:

a pitch, a swing…Wood makes the rounds

as Boston, N.Y. duke it out.

The crowds are up; they’re on their feet.

They’re roaring for their team to beat

the opposition.  There’s no doubt

collective breaths will all be held

since on that day, the Sox repelled      

the Giants, with the final out.

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Notes: Sepia Saturday provided an old photograph for today's prompt which tell a story (President Wilson at a train stop.)  It was a really cool picture, which I may use in a future poem, but when I saw the above snapshot, I had to have a go at it.

In case you didn't know, I am a baseball fan (in general) and a Phillies fan (in particular.)

Go Phillies!

Anyway, the poetic form is Nove Otto which was highlighted at Poetic Bloomings this week.  It's a fun. seriously addicting poetic form.

So, get your game on and check it out!

Minute Music Metaphor.

Image courtesy of Borg Music

  Fast Fable

Thus, in haiku-speak,

allegro allegories    

mean prompt parables.

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Note:  Laurie Harris Kolp is a contributor at Imaginary Garden with Real Toads.  She provided the prompt for today's poeming, with the word 'allegro.'  However, there was a small catch to the prompt:  in addition to using the word 'allegro' which means quick or brief, poets can pen no more than eight lines to the single stanza (an octave) of our poems, and we have to write it in under a minute.  Give it a try - it's really challenging and fun!

Tik Tok

Salvador Dali's "Soft Watch at Moment of First Explosion"

Clockwise & Counterclockwise
(On Further Reflection)

Most clock hands move in deasil direction.

That’s a fancy way of saying ‘clockwise.’

It has to mean, on further reflection,

(but with a smidgen of circumspection -

and this should really come as no surprise)

when clock hands move in deasil direction

the opposite word, per recollection,

is widdershins. Logic surely defies!

It has to mean, on further reflection

the word-gods have a strange predilection

with coinage of terms so they can advise:

“Most clock hands move in deasil direction…” ???...!

Would it be more fun to mix up flexion?

Say weasel … or  … diddershins? I’d surmise

it has to mean, on further reflection

they’ve simply made a lyric election -

‘though it makes me want to just cross my eyes.

Ergo, clock hands moving in deasil-y direction

move time-wise, quite feasibly, on further reflection.

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Tik Tok

So, deasil’s just another word
for clockwise, which is more preferred.
And how did they come up with this?
But on the other hand, admins
of lexicons say widdershins
which otherwise one might dismiss
since counterclockwise means the same
as widdershins (a better name?)
Yes…hands on clocks tick tock like this.

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Notes:  Poetic Asides' prompt for this week was to write a remix poem using an older poem (yours or someone else's) to orchestrate a new poem.  For this process, I took a poem I wrote several years ago, whose form is the Passerat Villanelle. To write the new poem, I used a suggestion from Poetic Bloomings  Their 'In-Form Poet' entry this week showcased the poetic form Nove Otto, which is the form for the second poem.

Both were all about the wordplay (something I love!) having to do with clock direction. 

So, thanks for taking the time to stop by and Dali a bit with me today.  ♥