In Tandem with Margaret Bednar & Gillena Cox

“Of Nymphs and Gods"  

Elephants effortlessly leap
as cougars crouch and giants sleep
and I upon Gaia’s ample breast
relinquish time to nymph’s mystique.

Now then in cool of morning rest
heat rays abide in sun’s digest
broad lays day as banana leaves
give succor thou wanton guest. 

Until westward wind sighs and heaves
Aura’s artistry aside and conceives
a cumulus sky of fearful might
'tis fair Iris's name to which I cleave.

Silhouettes court jasmine's white
orange hues bring lovers in sight
quiet passions to golden steep
guide the hush of twilight's flight.




When Margaret emailed me i quickly responded, for i was eager, after giving my yes to Kerry's invitation to Toads in Tandem. I linked Margaret to a few of my past collaborations, and mentioned to her that i liked a recently discovered form, with which i was experimenting - the rubaiyat .

#The Rubáiyát a Persian form of several quatrains. Its name derives from the Arabic plural of the word for "quatrain," Rubá'íyah. This, in turn, comes from the Arabic Rubá, meaning "four."
#In each quatrain, all lines rhyme except the third.

We decided on an Interlocking Rubaiyat,

#The 3 Stanza interlock is aaba.bbcb.ccac.
Slight adjustments had to be made in the rhyme scheme since we were writing a 4 Stanza interlock.
#Our rhyme scheme is aaba.bbcb.ccdc.ddad

Now we had to choose theme, "I luv clouds " i told Margaret and she echoed "look to the clouds for inspiration," and opted to write the first stanza. So now we were on our way to our collaborating adventure.

It was fun, writing, titling, (Margaret proposed the title), explaining thoughts, understanding, fine-tuning: all this via e-mail. I choose the accompanying nephelai-images from a google search.
#Nephelai - cloud nymphs of Greek Mythology

Thank you for reading Toads, hope you enjoyed our serving up of "Of nymphs and gods”