Month: November 2019

What Happens Now [A Modern Chanso]

On By Adam AstraIn Poetry, Poetry Challenge, writingLeave a comment

What Happens Now [A Modern Chanso]

What happens now is important:
a journey of a thousand miles,
a heroic test of fortune,
will carry you across the isles

of fear and imagination,
of suffering and beauty found
interwoven through creation,
like the moon’s pull on the tide, bound

inextricably together.
Don’t scar the earth mining for gold;
the cave within holds the treasure
so often sought, but never sold,

and never bought at any price,
though you’ll find many dishonest
men advertising otherwise.
Your actions now are a promise;

Your choices now fashion your fate—
Choose courage now; it’s not too late.

~

Click Here to learn more about the Fifty-Two Form Poetry Challenge.

Click Here to learn more about the chanso form.

~

— A sample of what you’ll find at my new blog, Astra Poetica —

~ Come back next week to see the next form! ~

— Creative works are owned by the author and subject to copyright laws—

Three Gogyohka (Week 24)

On By Adam AstraIn Poetry, Poetry Challenge, writingLeave a comment


Three Gogyohka

I.

The autumn sunset
the prairie moon
the astounding things
the eyes can do
with light

II.

In arctic silence
even an echo
of a heartbeat
can become
an avalanche

III.

Don’t stack up
your worry
against the frost
you’ll wither without
that winter sun

~

Click Here to learn more about the Fifty-Two Form Poetry Challenge.

Click Here to learn more about the gogyohka form.

~

— A sample of what you’ll find at my new blog, Astra Poetica —

~ Come back next week to see the next form! ~

— Creative works are owned by the author and subject to copyright laws—

Featured Poem: E.E. Cummings – [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

On By Adam AstraIn Love, Poetry, writingLeave a comment

There’s nothing better than hearing a brilliant poet read their own work.

[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]

BY E. E. CUMMINGS

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

~

~ Reproduced from poetryfoundation.org ~
~For more on E.E. Cummings, click here ~

~

~I claim no ownership of the content shared~

Bird by Bird [a Villanelle]

On By Adam AstraIn Poetry, Poetry Challenge, writingLeave a comment

Bird by Bird [a Villanelle]

I write to write and see my mind in words.
I fear not dullness nor avoid mistake.
I write to write and take it bird by bird.

Ideas they flow though often quite absurd;
These visions form and dream-filled pictures make.
I write to write and see my dreams in words.

But how, you ask, can one with eyes obscured
By sleep-drunk thoughts be made to spring awake?
I write to wake and take it bird by bird.

Although it’s true I’m less than self-assured,
And my neglected voice is sure to shake;
I write to heal and grow through shaking words.

And my unpracticed voice may well be heard,
But I fear not that I’ll be found a fake.
I write to live and see my life in words.
I write to write and take it bird by bird.

A Note on My Original Villanelle

My villanelle is inspired by Anne Lamott’s wonderful guide to writing and the creative life, Bird by Bird.

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Click Here to learn more about the Fifty-Two Form Poetry Challenge.

Click Here to learn how to write your own Villanelle.

~

— A sample of what you’ll find at my new blog, Astra Poetica —

~ Come back next week to see the next form! ~

— Creative works are owned by the author and subject to copyright laws—

~ Write your own and share in the comments!~

The Haibun

On By Adam AstraIn Poetry, Poetry Challenge, writingLeave a comment

October 29, 2019 [a haibun]

October is ending. The blazing reds of the sugar maple have begun to yellow. I stand at the front window, still in my bathrobe though noon approaches, still fighting a cold with rest and medication. A small grey cat brushes against my leg and then the curtain. Beside her, a fat tabby dozes on a quilt on a rocking chair. Beside the rocking chair, a wastebasket full of crumpled tissues waits to be emptied.

I refill my coffee mug, warming my hands with it as I return to the window. The leaves on the lawn are beginning to brown, reminding me of the promise to rake. Last year we let them lay and they choked the irises. At the feeder, only the occasional finch returns. The water in the birdbath is not yet frozen.

October ends
orange leaves and white snowflakes 
fall together

~

Click Here to learn more about the Fifty-Two Form Poetry Challenge.

Click Here to learn how to write your own Haibun.

~

— A sample of what you’ll find at my new blog, Astra Poetica —

~ Come back next week to see the next form! ~

— Creative works are owned by the author and subject to copyright laws—

~ Write your own and share in the comments!~