Poem #7 for Poetry Month-Greek Ionic A Minore

We read. Then we read aloud. Some of us read aloud from a podium to a crowd. Others of us would rather be boiled in oil than read aloud in public. Imagine wearing a toga, getting to the amphitheatre and reciting poetry from memory (no scraps of paper and no pockets to put them in). This makes attempting Classical Greek and Latin poetry more difficult for North Americans with our wildly varying regional accents and ways of enunciating our syllables.

I am tackling the Ionic A Minore form of Classical Greek poetry today and will try not to go off the rails with the form which doesn’t require rhyme anywhere but which does, like all the ancient Greek forms, rely heavily on whether a syllable is stressed or lightly spoken. This form calls for a constant number of syllables in each line and requires that the stress pattern (how the poet presents it as a speaker) be: ~ ~// or light, light,  strong, strong. There are two feet, or groups of four syllables, in each line with this four measure pattern. Here/hear we go... photo of Limony, Black Krim, and Radiator Charlie's Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes. I had not yet discovered the wondrous Green Zebra tomato. Also two lonely tomatillos waiting for their brethren so Jeff can make a killer salsa verde.

                                            Writing Mind & Gardener's Hands

                                             In the bright green of this spring blur

                                             I plan ten tasks, do perhaps five

                                             Carry on, dream, of new plays, beans

                                             And more striped-green tomatoes, yes!

                                             And more stories, among poems.

Poem #6 for Poetry Month- Chinese Ch'i-Yen-Shih

Today the new poetic form is from the Chinese: Ch’i-Yen-Shih.  It is comprised of monosyllables, which is trickier than it first appears especially when a perfect two syllable word pops into one's morning brain. 

There are seven syllables per line, the rhyme scheme is A B C B, with a pause/caesura after the fourth word in each line. 

That gives the poem/poet a spot to question, to rethink, to let the line unspool a while... think of it as climbing a hill and stopping at a place to look at the view out there. 

The photo is from 2009 when we built raised beds and transplanted asparagus in new soil after removing the old contaminated soil first. We now have flower beds elsewhere and I will cut the first asparagus of 2015 for a tofu stir-fry tonight. It seems there is a theme to this day already...

Said the Gardener to the Sun

I beg the sun

   please come, stay--

the sky floods light

   soaked earth sighs

Her back is strong
  though not young

She picks a fool

  Tool! cracks wise.

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.

Poem #4 for April Poetry Month-Bengali Payar

Bengali Payar is a form which lends itself to oral presentation as it has two rhyming couplets within long lines which are halved yet again .

There are two 8 syllable lines with an internal structure of 4 and 4 beats, then a six syllable line with a 4 and 2 beat rhythm.

The six syllable lines rhyme with each other and the last line is a finale. These are fun! The soaked flowers are Lily of the Nile or agapanthus, which follow hard on the heels of daffodils here on Lennard Island. I love their true blue colour and ability to withstand the vile weather of late!

Canadian Monsoon

Somebody wrote, Cruel April

   breaking records, hot cold

rolling thunder, lightning strikes too

   floods strand poor cows, mud mould...

But wait one day, or week or month

   April snickers, you’ll see

patience rewards, remember this

   don’t plant too soon, think like a bee.