Monday, April 6, 2015

Poem #5 for Poetry Month-Burmese Than-Bauk




The  photo is of the shy and elusive fawn lily which arrives in shady spots as early as February. I spotted this one beside the Nootka Trail when we were working there one year.

This poem is a Burmese Than-Bauk, familiarly known as a “climbing rhyme” due to its internal rhyming structure. The than-bauk is a 3 line poem of 4 syllables per line wherein the key rhyming word is the fourth word in line one. The second line must have a word that rhymes with it at the third syllable and of course, the last line must then rhyme with both at the second syllable. So it suits short one syllable words best. Otherwise one’s brain becomes a pretzel trying to rhyme anything as complex as two or three syllables or it can become a ‘table’ ‘fable’ ‘gable’ sort of lame effort.

Spy Movie in Burma: Director’s Notes

Lady will wait

Inside; bait for

A late night guest.

5 comments:

  1. Nice! Loved the fawn lily. Have never seen anything but white.

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    1. Yes, they are so pretty with their downcast heads and that lovely colour. I think they must be a bit like lupins in their range of colours. All the ones on Nootka Island we found were this lovely pink colour. And then the pattern of three rhyming words and three flowers popped into my late morning brain and I was off to the poetry races once again! Thanks so much for reading and commenting. I really appreciate not feeling like I'm yodelling into a rain barrel out here!

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  2. I love this poem, Caroline. Much as I love fawn lilies, this distillation wowed me more.

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  3. This is a stunning poem, Caroline - distillation made visible.

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    1. Many thanks, Sheila. This one just popped out while thinking of Burma and the brave Lady under house arrest for decades while armed thugs kept watch to see if hostile "elements" like foreign journalists ever paid a clandestine visit. I am having fun with this process! & yes, please do that dog anthology (many of us adore them) and you can certainly have first dibs on this one. I'll have to ask them both for model releases though...;>)

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