So, this is a form I read about in a list of poetic forms and it was intriguing. It is based on a rhyme scheme that is (sort of) like the word abracadabra, you simply remove the r’s. I was also reading about several forms that include refrains. As it turns out this form is conducive to a refrain (of a sort).

Here’s what I jotted today:

Magic

There is magic in her eyes,
 I can see it in the dark.
 It’s there with no disguise
 but you must look close to see it.
 It will take you by surprise,
 and catch you unaware.
 To ignore it would be unwise,
 as it will leave an indelible mark.
 There is magic in her eyes.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

Cheers!

Santa, how I wish
 I’d get off the naughty list but…
 being good’s no fun.

Phone it in

In the event of an unexpected issue that leads to an unexpected nap my readers should expect the unexpected, like when a prose poem appears in an attempt to explain why the expectations of an expectant readership are suddenly being let down. We expect this poem will not meet the audiences expectation so we apologize and expectantly await some comments.

Yeah… I fell asleep and botched day 23. Sorry.

Cheers!

Lot’s of birthdays this month, mine included. I was having a conversation with a friend who said something about getting older that prompted this poem. I am also looking at my watch. It has apparently died. Sad.

I chose the Haibun. It’s a nifty little form that combines a prose poem with a haiku. I am not super keen on how this one turned out, but I am kind of tired of working on it. A change here makes it clunky there… It is ok right now. Perhaps someday I’ll work the kinks out.

For now:

Down the Drain

Time passes more quickly each day, like water nearing the bottom of a drain, circling faster with less distance to cover, racing to the end. 

 The watch sits staring
 its blank face not keeping time
 but life continues.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

If you are looking for gift ideas… that new Apple Watch is pretty sweet… Ha! Cheers!

I have no title… and no desire to chat about this one.

When will you forget
 the things we have in common
 that I am your son...
 
 Maybe some morning
 with the sun shining brightly
 in your front window?
 
 I’ll knock on the door
 you’ll answer tentatively
 and then I will know.
 
 You’ll offer me tea
 perhaps a cookie or two
 but you won’t know me.
 
 I’ll just be a man
 in your front room this morning
 asking you questions.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

Cheers!

Best intentions

plans laid out

and then the rug

is yanked from

beneath my feet.

Yeah… I’m told it’s pronounced “bir a thod-dayed”. Now that we have that out of the way… I need to confess. I left this until way too late in the day and the day really seems to have kicked my backside. I picked this form because it was six lines (and I could do six lines). I then discovered that when you have to come up with several words that all basically rhyme, six lines can be a bit of a challenge…

As it is, I crafted a “poem like thing” and it fits the most minimal description of the form. I probably owe Wales and all Welsh poets an apology, so I offer it now.

Here’s what I came up with:

Daily Dissent

December, my month of writing verse.
 Sometimes it’s better other times worse.
 Regular endings come across terse,
 several forced rhymes are interspersed.
 Hey! It’s amusing never the less...
 yet it's ever a challenging curse.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

Cheers!

Ok, so I’m not going to give her a happy ending… sorry. It’s my birthday, she can cry if she wants to…

She visits bookstores
 to escape the loneliness
 the smell reminds her
 of her favorite moments
 laughing as he read aloud.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

Cheers!

I started a story and didn’t finish it, so… here is the second installment… We shall see if there is more to come…

When she woke alone, 
 It all seemed like a bad dream. 
 Then she saw the blood
 there on the back of her hand
 where she had brushed his cold cheek.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

This just has to get better…

Cheers!

So, the tanka for originated in Japan, like the haiku and others… but it is a little different that the haiku. The Japanese tanka is a 5 line, 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count, poem. It focuses on a moment in time and allows for imagery and metaphor which haiku tend to avoid. The rules that the tanka does follow are… loose and up to interpretation in many respects. The tanka, in English, seems to benefit from attention to the meter of the line, more than the exact syllable count. There are a lot of interesting resources on the form, I’ll let you do your own research.

Here’s what I came up with:

Accident

They had to pry the
 rumpled sweatshirt from her hands
 as the rain fell lightly
 over the road and the wreck
 that left her alone in the world.

Copyright ©2019 Tim Geoghegan, all rights reserved.

Cheers!