When I got my Master’s in Literature, one task I was asked to perform was to write a poetry chapbook. The first thing I had to do was look up what a chapbook was, and then I had to look up what a bunch of poetry forms were. The assignment was to include 20 different forms of poetry and then to summarize the experience of writing them. This seems like as good a place as any to archive that assignment, which turned out to be a wonderful experience!
For Riley
Take a snowy walk with me
Through wonder and through mystery
A wintry world I’ve never seen!
Come on, Daddy, walk with me
There’s a fluffy blanket on every tree
I’m so excited! Come and see!
Over the bridge, across the creek
Let’s run and jump, hop and SCREEEEEEAAAAM!!
It won’t last long, come play with me!
Thanks for inviting me along,
As we write this verse in childhood’s song!
I treasure them all, for they won’t last long….
I treasure them all, for they won’t last long.
Tripadi: A Toddler’s First Snow
Reaching her tongue towards the sky
She thrills as the snowflake lands awry
She leaps for joy as she tastes the icy treat.
As the snow falls deep and deeper
She becomes a little creeper
Making angels in the snow and giggling.
Than-Bauk: The Coke Explosion
He shook up the can
We all ran fast
And man, it blew!
Ya-Du: A Complicated Fall
The leaves fall red
Some tress dead lean
We said how strange
And then range free
The grange will never ever be the same for me.
Chi’-Yen-Shih-Metre: In the Green Grass
In the green grass
an inch worm
makes his way home
from his meal
it was a blade
so good, sweet
now he will sleep
and dream real.
Chuch-Chi I: Freedom
Red car:
Oh so fast
craves speed
drinks much gas;
blue sky
rag top down;
band rocks
what a blast,
this day
soothes my soul,
no cares
just a song,
head back
sing out loud;
People stare
say so long!
Wu-Yeh-Shih Metre: A Child’s Lesson
She picked
red, green, blue,
and blew
white pods gone,
watched those
as they flew
flew right
to the sun
Blues Stanza: Hot Summer Night
She played the soft strings of my heart;
She stroked the soft strings of my heart;
The night brought us to paradise again.
She played my body like a song;
Caressed my body like a song;
We sang a song of sweet, sweet love.
The sweat poured off like a waterfall;
Poured off our bodies like a waterfall;
And we fell away into the night’s embrace.
Burns Stanza: Hop, Hop, Hopping Along
The Easter bunny just loves to hop
And as he hops he likes to drop
An Easter egg at every stop
Might be yummy
Some candy, maybe a lemon drop
For your tummy!
Echo Verse I: It’s What’s For Dinner
What do you want to eat?
Meat!
What’s that on your fork?
Pork!
What’s your baby lickin’?
Chicken!
Did you finish your beef potpie?
Bye!
Echo Verse II: The Race
He was running fast, fast
Faster than the wind, to win
The biggest tournament of all, Fall
Brought the racers out, about
To test their skill to best the best
But only one can win, the end.
Lai: The Gully washer
As the rain pours down
A droplet hits the ground
The splash
Never makes a sound
Refreshes all ’round
Wet flash!
Thunder likes to pound
Lightning strikes the ground
Big crash!
Choka: Morning Chaos
Quick jump in your car!
Should have left a while ago.
Hope that light turns green,
Speed up, go if yellow!
The second hot tea
Pushed me past my time to leave,
What necessity
Caffeine always turns out to be.
Without it I would just sleep.
Dodoitsu: The Painting
Red, green, yellow, blue, purple
Combine in such wondrous ways,
A splatter here, splatter there
Now clean up that mess!
Katauta: Weatherman
Will it rain today?
I don’t know why you ask me.
My answer will be wrong.
Mondo: Easter Morning
Is Christ alive now?
If believing changed you.
Brahma, Siva and Visnu
Creation is your gift, you do it with ease
Paternal, caring, you’re in charge of it all;
Your anger boils over, you’re vicious and mean
Consumed with revenge, you ruthlessly rule;
The balance is you, the benevolent king
You stand ‘tween extremes and let justice reign.
The Greatest Work of Art
The Grand Canyon;
The Rocky Mountains;
Mount Kilimanjaro;
The Caribbean Sea;
Artists slave and slave, trying to capture beauty and awe,
Yet beauty abounds without effort from those.
How strange my daily cares, the concerns of my head
They dissolve straight away in nature’s pure art.
Baudelaire’s Beauty
Majestic mountains thrust towards the sky,
Serene rivers make paths through forest glens,
Yet I care not.
True beauty is lost in the name of “progress,”
Industry plows downs streets and ancient stone,
It murders all.
Oh Paris, are you gone forever?
Desire for progress casts tradition aside.
My heart weeps.
The Guilty Survivor
A civilized person can only say so
If he never knows true desperation;
The desperate soul will cling to all hope
Of avoiding its own decimation.
But what does it mean to survive
If one can’t live with oneself after?
Perhaps only the body survived after all
Little left but to visit Hereafter.
Borges’ Quantum Mechanics
A labyrinth
A book
A German attack
Future foreseen
A war rages on
Ishmael's Legacy 