Sorry

It's the word that won't live past it's sell by date; sealed
To some mould with no additives. Sorry? The word
Is a breath to you; effortless. Every dropped crumb
Left behind by that word is completely absurd.

It's the food that is sold with the fooling white smile;
It out-shines all the rest of it's kind. It's the pack
That you buy when you head into Tescos, the one
You'll consume when you need a good snack.

When your hunger is tamed, you go out to have fun
Whilst your sorrys perfect their aerobics. Inside
Your sick head you prepare the long speech that begins
With the sorry denials; you've lost before you've tried.

You are just like Mount Unzen, except it is you
Who will boil up more frequently. But you need
The insurance of sorry to aid your so wimpy escape;
Only sorry fulfills the completely wrong deed.

Task 33 - Bird Of The Heavens (Beginner)

Time that flies like a desperate bird, recklessly;
Carelessly; hence aiming to find her essential
Prey. Since she wants it. She needs it. Her life is it.
And that jigsaw of success is her potential.

Eyes drowned; lost in the telescope of her own fate,
But not seeing the right painting she wants painted,
Drives her to ultimately re- route paths life hold.
A portrait her soul desires is untainted.

The enchanting orb – a mirror of distorted
Lies. Manipulating the mind: a delusion
For the weak: a mirage for distinct failure.
That fool’s paradise is a world of confusion.

Her bed of roses, now in bloom, lies in the dark,
While they wait for their sombre sky of grey to clear.
Once the sunlight has taken off its coat of cold,
They know that their time to fully flourish is near.

A symphony of irregular heartbeats pound
On her soul.Is this the key to open that door?
It’s sublimely vandalised with gold elation,
And responds to your wishes in which you implore . . .

Task 33 - Christmas Letters

It was the night before Christmas and all through the house
Everybody was writing, except for my wife.
Though that may sound impressive, it’s not, for you see,
All our kids have moved out, leaving just her and me.
I’ve been pounding the keyboard for hours without rest,
In an effort to pen this in pure anapaest.
There are times things don’t turn out the way we had planned,
But it seems that my wife doesn’t quite understand.
She continually bugs me as I try to write,
“Are you planning to get one more thing done tonight?”
“Though it is time consuming,” at last I declare,
“Every word must be placed with the utmost of care.”
“Well, I’m sure you work hard not to make a mistake,
But I really think you ought to give it a break.
We have presents to wrap, and there’s food to prepare.
There are things you could do besides just sitting there.”
“It’s a type of a poem Dad told us to write
About Christmas. I hope to get finished tonight.”
“Then I think that you’re wasting your time. Don’t you know
That the prompt for that writing was two weeks ago.”

I had help from my older cousin, she helped me a lot because i was stuck for help!

With eyes that make my heart skip an important beat.

A smile with teeth that sparkle and brighten my day.

Hair as soft as velvet, brushing against my skin.

Just to see that face. Would wash all my fears away.

Skin as smooth as silk. Never touched by any hand.

Cheeks looking as precious as a babies soft head.

Every word spoken from their lips is like a gift.

Their lips, such a perfectly beautiful shade of red.

That face. In my dreams. Every night. As I sleep.

Such beauty, haunts my mind. Each moment I'm awake.

I wish to see a face as beautiful as that.

Every moment without it. My heart does.ache.

So each night as I dream of that. I don't think of

The moment I catch a glimpse of it, the moment

My dreams come true. I'll think of what's behind the face.

Was it worth it. Is it everything I dreamt?

THE SILHOUETTE OF DARKNESS

Seen from above the sky weeps, clouds float down here.
There shadows over human heads give earth sadness.
Still radiance new projects old but still no love.
On high the love brings the dark silhouette madness.

Then when it sights a babies face love grows calmly.
When sighting of a wrinkled hand reach out to love.
Silhouette “that wound pierced love out of my heart”.
Your heart might be black but your soul as white as a dove.

With a passion for us we could not return to,
Understand ways to feel happy and very free.
Laugh but the creature can kill you in a quick flash
As it spreads throughout city what o what could it be?

As I came to the edge of the mysterious
The creature-dying eye was falling glazed and dim.
To see within the darkened room no help no cry.
The creature walked as I caught sight of the torn limb.

No gasping breath no thank you the creature lay dead.
Disintegrated in the sand what was that thing?
Ways in which you understand not all must be known.
Maybe that was our long lost mutilated king.

Seasons entwined with nature (beginner)

When the shining sun shimmers, it shares its smile
When the birds sing their song, they bestow a charm of
Joy and happiness. When the breeze brushes by, it
Brings a cool and calming feeling from up above.

When there is blossom blooming on a dancing tree
When there are pretty, colourful, elegant flowers
When there is growing green everywhere to be seen
That’s the time of summer. The beginning of flower power

Winter
When the trees are stripped with nothing to spare.
When the colourful flowers have withered away.
When there is no trace of growing green to be seen
When the sky invaded by heaps of clouds turns grey.

When the bitter wind robustly comes out to play
When the lazy animals hibernate and hide
When a fluffy smooth white blanket, swathes the long streets
When frost is fierce. But it’s very different inside...

The season of lots of love and prosperity.
The excited faces of all the younger kids
Yearning for their wrapped up, expensive presents.
And of course Christmas dinner worth a thousand quid!!!!

By Lilmiz

Task 33: Anapestic Fun

For the last task of 2008, we are going to have fun with the ANAPEST.

So you can kiss that infernal iamb goodbye for the time being, and lock that sonnet in the cupboard for the foreseeable future. Some of you have cracked it completely and perfectly, and most of you are pretty much there. We will return to iambic pentameter - whether you like it or not - but the final task of 2008 is slightly different (and, I hope, FUN!).

If you have learnt anything from our recent tasks, your understanding of rhythm and meter will now be far more advanced than you realise. You will know the difference between a stressed and an unstressed syllable; you will know what a foot is, and what makes one iambic; and, hopefully, you will be starting to think and speak in feet. To add to that, you will also know all about enjambement, caesura and different types of rhyme.

So Task 33 should be easy! :)

You will probably have clicked on the hyperlink above already, and so will already have some basic idea of what an ANAPEST is anyway. But, nonetheless, I shall give you my own explanation:

An ANAPEST is a FOOT which consists of THREE syllables; the first two are UNSTRESSED and the last one is STRESSED.

In other words, whereas an iamb is dee-DUM, an ANAPEST is dee-dee-DUM.

Here are some examples of anapestic poetry:

"For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee." (Edgar Allen Poe)

"And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!" (Lord Byron)

"Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place." (Robert Browning)

As with any different type of meter/rhythm, it's just a question of tuning into the rhythm with which you are dealing: dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM etc. (you get the idea...)

Now as for how many of these feet I am looking for in each line, I am expecting FOUR. In other words, you will be writing ANAPESTIC (using anapests) TETRAMETER (four anapestic feet):
dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM dee-dee-DUM

And I am looking for a minimum of four quatrains – or, in other words, a minimum of four sets of four lines.

Each quatrain should rhyme abcb (and the second defe) etc.

N.B. As always, enjambement, caesura, soft and/or internal rhymes and alliteration strengthen any poem – as does a reliance on imagery and, above all, ORIGINALITY.

And as for your checks for this task:
1. Does each line have 12 syllables?
2. Does the 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th syllable sound correct stressed (and the others correct unstressed)?
3. Do you have at least four, 4-line stanzas (quatrains)?
4. Do the even lines rhyme in each stanza?
5. And, lastly, have you made any careless errors with spelling, punctuation, grammar or typos?

I will expect you all to conduct ALL these checks before you post, and, as always, your post must be submitted by the deadline, which is MIDNIGHT on SATURDAY 13TH DECEMBER.

Lastly, as for your topic: ANYTHING you want... ☺

Here, as always, is my attempt:

My Family and Other Books

In the absence of father or mother to guide
Me and give me the sanctum of love in a home;
And without someone’s hand to hold mine, I was left
So bereft, with no choice but to seek out my own.

And where better to look than in characters born
On the page of a book? I could enter the how
Of the author’s creation and fashion myself
As a character too. I had family now.

I remember that Emerson taught me that why
Had an answer, and that was invariably yes.
I recall that Iago was bad but poor Lear
Was misguided and Hamlet was simply a mess.

Uncle Sam taught me tons, as I waited for God
-ot and realised Kerouac had it in one:
That the journey is everything. Borges was right:
It’s the moments that matter, so why not have fun?

So when you look for guidance or seek the advice
Of a person who knows how to truly survive,
Friends and family, even your teachers reside
In the yellowing pages around chapter five.

P.S. If any of you want me to explain any of the many literary references in this poem, all of which have shaped my life to a massive degree, please feel free to email me and ask... :)