Seven Girls

Image courtesy of Angie Bergen Collection

Image courtesy of Photography-on-the-net

Seven Girls

Faded background, long ringlet curls:

sign of the times from yesteryear.

The worn faces of seven girls

wearing vague smiles, mostly austere.

Updated background, tattoos and swirls:      

sign of the times from modern day.

Made-up faces of seven girls:

wholly different kind of display.

Times have changed; and this resonates.  It’s true…

each photograph could capture me or you.    

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Notes:  The prompt from Sepia Saturday was to either use their vintage photograph (a marvelous one which I still might use!) or use one of our own.  Inspired by some of the work of Bob Scotney, I decided to do a contrast(ish) poem, using an old and a new photograph which I paired with the poetic form Sonnetina Tre.

Thanks for visiting.  My wish for tonight?  Stay dry, warm and safe.

Share & Shairi Alike

Monday's Child posted an adorable illustration by G. Shepheard of two little Dutch girls and two little cats - who are apparently fascinated by one another.  As the mom of twins, this prompt was irresistible to me.

Therefore, I decided I needed to write a quatrain kind of poem, in order to get the two and two/twin thing going.  I visited The Poets Garret for an idea, and found - to my delight - the form Shairi. 

Twins

Sister and I saw two small cats.  They looked at us and said, “Mew!  Mew!”

Sister observed, “Like us, they’re twins – that’s twice as nice!” I said, “So true.”

She asked the cats if they would like to come with us, or just pursue

some wee field mice.  Each thought a bit, then climbed aboard her wooden shoe…

…and my shoe, too.

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For those who might be interested, here's the scoop on the Shairi:

This is a rather unusual form, originating from Georgia in the 12th Century. The English language version is a mono rhymed quatrain of sixteen (16) syllables broken up into four sections.
There are two versions, the Dabali Shairi or low version, and the Magala Shairi or high version. The low version is not really suited to the Iamb poet as it consists of five syllables, followed by three syllables, a caesura and then a triple rhyme. Here is the schematic;

x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a) x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a) x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a) x x x x x, x x x, - x x x x x, (x x a)

The Magali Shairi is much better suited to the Iambic user as sections are broken up into fours (or two iambs), there is still a caesura after the second section, but the requirement is only for a double rhyme. Here is that schematic;

x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a) x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a) x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a) x x x x, x x x x, - x x x x, x x (x a)

All eyes are on you - and the parts of speech...

Happy Sunday!  Today's poems, unlike yesterday, have only one thing in common - they are poems (if you stretch the definition just a bit.)  SiS/Few Miles provided a picture of eyes as their haiku prompt, and Sunday Scribblings wants to see a story, which I attempt to do in triple Rictameter form.  Ready?  Here goes...

 

RequEYEted Love

I am watching you,

trying hard to unnerve you.

Wait.  What?  You like it?

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Image courtesy Squidoo

 Conjunctions and Conjugations

 

This is

the story of

the conjunction,

which may sound silly but

that’s what it is, and yet some folks

may scoff and say, “Conjunctions?  Bah!  Nothing!

They’re not even some worthwhile parts

of our language or speech,

nor have they worth.”

But, see…

without

the conjunction,

the run-on sentence would

run on on on on on on on…

we would be stuck using prepositions

which might be fun for a while but

that would get dull quite fast

and that would suck,

you know.

But wait, there's more...

Now here’s

a story of

conjugation

(not to be confused with

conjugal, which is something else.)

Am, Is, Are, Was, Were, Be, Being

and Been are how you conjugate the verb

‘To Be.’  When Hamlet said those words,

he was conjugating

and you can, too.

The end.

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Fortuosity

Writer's Island posted their weekly prompt today - and the magic word is 'Destiny.'  At first I was stuck on how to approach such a fateful topic, and then a bit of fortuosity happened.  Fortuosity?  Yep, fortuosity. 

Fortuosity is the name of a song from the movie The Happiest Millionaire (1967) which is performed by Tommy Steele, who plays young Irish immigrant John Lawless.  The film begins in Philadelphia, in 1916, and finds Lawless seeking employment as a butler at the home of eccentric millionaire Anthony J. Drexel Biddle. 

In the film, John Lawless has an upbeat, positive, looking-towards-the-future personality, and his song, whose lyrics include lines like, “`Round the corner, under a tree, good fortune's waitin', just wait and see…” underscore the point really well.  It's a fun movie, and I highly recommend it - so if you get the chance, watch it sometime.

But I digress.

Fortuosity.  Although not a real word, per se, it means a belief in yourself, and the fact that everything will turn out well in the end. 

So, what was my bit of fortuosity?  Stumbling upon a lucky quote.  And with that, here’s my poem:

A Saraband for a Gumball in Hand

Serendipity is putting a quarter in the gumball machine and having three pieces come rattling out instead of one—all red.  -Peter H. Reynolds

I remember when I was small

I would ask my mom for a coin

to get a cherry red gumball.

Purple was okay in my book

but red was the one that I sought.

Now and then I cheated and shook

the machine.  Kid magic, I thought.

You never know what will come out

the gumball machine’s metal spout.

Chance is what it is all about.

Luck may not decide to convene.

You might get yellow or a green.

But sometimes, you’re the conferee:

a red gumball - or two… or three.

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